■AVIATION
Passenger numbers plunge
Air France-KLM Group, Europe’s biggest airline, said passenger traffic last month fell 1.9 percent and cargo shipments plunged as the global recession reduced demand for business travel and retrained trade. The load factor, or proportion of seats filled, was 76.6 percent, a 0.5 percentage-point decline from a year earlier, the Paris-based carrier said yesterday in a statement. Cargo traffic contracted by 23 percent. The global recession will cause industry passenger numbers to fall by 3 percent this year and airlines to log combined losses of US$2.5 billion, International Air Transport Association estimates show. The decline in freight “is absolutely horrendous and that says a lot about where corporate Europe is,” said Andrew Fitchie, a London-based analyst at Collins Stewart. “It’s not looking good at all.” Global air freight plunged almost 23 percent in December, the International Air Transport Association said on Jan. 29. The decline was the largest the trade body had ever recorded.
■FOREIGN EXCHANGE
China, Malaysia ink deal
The central banks of China and Malaysia have signed a currency swap agreement, the Chinese government said, as Asia’s second-largest economy strengthened regional ties amid the global crisis. The People’s Bank of China and Bank Negara Malaysia announced the three-year, 80 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) agreement on Sunday, the Chinese central bank said in a statement on its Web site. “The arrangement aims to promote bilateral trade and investment to boost the economic development of the two countries,” the brief statement said. Arrangements such as these ease liquidity trouble as they boost the amount of yuan that Malaysian banks can draw on while servicing local companies that use the Chinese currency when trading.
■BANKING
S Korean banks downgraded
International agency Moody’s said yesterday that it had downgraded ratings for eight South Korean banks, citing their dependence on the government to secure foreign currency funding. The foreign currency long-term senior debt ratings of the eight banks, including the country’s largest lender Kookmin Bank, were cut to “A2.” The revised ratings carry a stable outlook, except for state-run Korea Development Bank, which has a negative outlook. Because the banks rely on government support to secure foreign currency funding during the crisis, Moody’s believes their foreign currency debt ratings should not be higher than that of the government, senior credit officer Beatrice Woo said in a statement. “Therefore, their foreign currency debt ratings are best measured and constrained at the A2 foreign currency sovereign bond level,” she said.
■TELECOMS
SingTel reports growth
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) yesterday reported a 35 percent increase in regional mobile subscribers, despite stiff competition and the global economic crisis. SingTel’s combined regional mobile customer base reached 232 million on Dec. 31, Southeast Asia’s largest telecommunications firm said. On a quarterly basis, the increase was 7.3 percent, or 16 million customers, it said. All six of the company’s regional mobile associates posted double-digit customer growth, ranging from 13 percent to 55 percent, compared with a year earlier, SingTel said. The company has stakes in Thailand’s Advanced Info Service, India’s Bharti, Globe Telecom of the Philippines, Indonesia’s Telkomsel, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom and Pakistan’s Warid Telecom.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats