Leading air carriers are poised to reduce flights on certain international air routes starting in September in a move to cope with reduced customers and soaring fuel costs. Passengers are advised to double check with airlines for the latest flight schedules.

EVA Airways Corp., Taiwan's second largest carrier, will slash the most number of flights, amounting to 10 percent of the present flight service. Most of the affected flights concentrate on destinations in neighboring Asian nations and the U.S. West Coast.

EVA plans to reduce most flights to Hong Kong, cutting the weekly flights to 49 from the present 55. Other major cities in the Asian region to be affected will include Ho Chih Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, and the Jakarta-Singapore-Bangkok route.

Flights to Auckland, New Zealand will be suspended starting next week, while flights to cities on the U.S. West Coast, including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles will also be reduced, ranging from one to six flights each week. Weekly flights to Amsterdam will be cut to three from the current four, according to an executive at EVA Airways.

China Airlines, Taiwan's biggest carrier, plans to suspend flight service to Seattle.

Foreign airlines, also struggling with skyrocketing fuel costs, will suspend or reduce certain flights, too.

United Airlines will suspend direct flights from Taiwan to San Francisco. Malaysia Airlines will cut the weekly flights to Los Angeles to four from the current seven. Singapore Airlines plans to suspend the Taipei-Los Angeles flight every Thursday starting on Oct. 1.

Most airlines will no longer offer discounts, as in the past, after the end of the summer peak season. Many air carriers have already imposed surcharges and fees for excess baggage in a bid to offset fuel prices that doubled in a year.

However, the moves so far have not stemmed financial losses, said corporate executives, who described the unprecedented challenges airlines now face.

China Airlines reported a much wider loss for the first half of the year after fuel costs increased. As of June 30, the loss increased sharply to NT$6.53 billion from a loss of NT$868 million a year earlier.

The operating loss of EVA Airways also escalated to NT$5.97 billion, from NT$1.69 billion a year earlier.

For some air carriers, one of the bright spots in the bleak business picture is the charter flights across the Taiwan Strait over the weekends.

Executives expressed the hope that the anticipated increase in the tourists from China to Taiwan after the conclusion of the Beijing Olympic Games will help improve their financial standings.

(avbuyer.com.cn September 1, 2008)