China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) would end a salary reduction program next month and is not considering dismissing any staff, even though it is still not known whether demand for air travel will recover in the second half of this year, CAL chairman Hsieh Shih-chien (謝世謙) said yesterday.
State-run CAL in April announced that it would reduce salaries by 15 percent for employees, 20 percent for managers or section chiefs, and 25 percent for vice presidents and senior management in a move that was estimated to save NT$150 million (US$5.06 million) per month.
“We implemented the salary reduction [scheme] to avoid layoffs. So far, we have not considered any job cuts, as the situation is still manageable thanks to a boom in our cargo business,” Hsieh said at an annual general meeting in Taoyuan.
While most of CAL’s passenger aircraft have been idle due to flight cancelations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its monthly passenger revenue sank to NT$400 million from NT$10 billion a year earlier, the airline’s 18 cargo aircraft have become its pillar, generating enough revenue to sustain its business, Hsieh said.
CAL has also received more orders on higher freight rates since the outbreak began, he said.
CAL’s cargo revenue last month reached NT$9.12 billion, the highest for a single month, with cumulative cargo revenue growing 60 percent to NT$27.55 billion in the first five months of this year, company data showed.
“Salary cuts would end at the end of next month, according to our agreement with the labor union. Whether we will negotiate with the union again on pay cuts depends on the development of the pandemic,” Hsieh said.
“This is a tough year for airlines. Our main target is to survive. Demand for business travel would bounce back first, while it is still unknown when demand for regular travel would recover,” he said.
CAL is scheduled to receive one Boeing 777 freighter by the end of this year.
The airline plans to focus on gaining orders from local clients, and foreign clients in Southeast Asia and China, it said.
As the airline operates 10 Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft, it has trained some of its pilots to fly the wide-body jets and they are now ready to fly the cargo planes, it said.
CAL’s board of directors has not discussed renaming the airline, although some pro-independence groups earlier this month called on lawmakers to heed mainstream public opinion and review motions to rename it, Hsieh said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS