Tigerair Taiwan will add three new routes between Taichung and Japan and South Korea in July, the airline announced Wednesday, buoyed by growing demand as the travel industry rebounds from the doldrums of the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline said at its annual shareholders meeting that it will launch new routes between Taichung and Nagoya, Taichung and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, and Taichung and Busan next month, which will bring the number of routes it operates to 38. The new routes come as Tigerair Taiwan, Taiwan’s only budget airline, continues to benefit from a resurgence in the travel industry in the past 12 months following three difficult years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tigerair Taiwan said its revenue in the first five months of 2024 was up 50 percent year-over-year, and its first quarter revenue of NT$4.25 billion (US$131.24 million) was up 64 percent from the previous year. Also in the first quarter, its operating profit was NT$1.24 billion, up 124 percent from a year earlier. It had net income of NT$861 million and earnings per share of NT $1.92, helping offset deficits run up during the pandemic and pushing its book value per share higher to NT$11.35. Launched in 2014, Tigerair Taiwan now flies to 27 destinations in Asian countries and areas, including Japan, South Korea, Macau, Thailand and Vietnam.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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