Brent Hannon/TAIPEI
China Airlines (CAL) is considering deferring aircraft orders because of a 10-15% drop in load factors after one of its Airbus A300s crashed at Taipei in February, killing over 200 people.
CAL is considering the deferral of two Airbus A300-600Rs due for delivery this year, say airline sources. The carrier is also believed to be contemplating the deferral of 10 firm orders and five options for the Boeing 737-800, due to begin deliveries this year. This is considered less likely.
"We may want to delay the 737-800 deliveries, but we have to consider market demand, and the market is not so kind now," says a CAL source. CAL president Chun-Fan Fu resigned on 26 March, and the 10-year expansion plan is being reconsidered. At one stage a decision seemed imminent on an order for 350-seat aircraft - either the Boeing 777 or Airbus A340. That order is no longer a priority, however.
In a bid to improve passenger loads, CAL is offering regional tickets at less than half the regular price - including round trips to most Asia Pacific destinations for NT$6,000 (US$190). It is also discounting transpacific tickets by 20-30%.
The airline's summer schedule was supposed to include new services to Hanoi, Medan in Indonesia, Penang in Malaysia, Moscow, a Hong Kong to Manila flight and a cargo service to Atlanta.
With the exception of the Hong Kong-Manila service and the Atlanta cargo route, the airline has delayed or cancelled all these planned services indefinitely.
Aviation analyst Daniel Hellberg says that CAL's load factors dropped from 73%to 67% for the eight months following the 1994 crash of an A300 in Nagoya, Japan. He expects similar long-term fallout to result from the February accident. CAL traffic had already dropped sharply in the fourth quarter of last year.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese rival EVA Airways has dropped all domestic routes and agreed to merge its three subsidiaries. The three - UNI Air, Great China Airlines and Taiwan Airlines - will now become a single carrier called UNI Air.
The new airline will transfer its international routes to EVA and reduce the number of aircraft types in its fleet. Taiwan Airlines' Pilatus Britten-Norman Islanders and Trislanders are expected to be among the casualties.
There is also speculation that Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT), Taiwan's largest and most profitable second tier carrier, is set to merge with TransAsia Airways following FAT's acquisition of a 10% stake in the parent company Gold Sun last February. These two carriers together represent half Taiwan's domestic capacity.
Source: Flight International
