JAKARTA: Srilankan Airlines will commence a weekly service
JAKARTA: Srilankan Airlines will commence a weekly service
from Jakarta to Colombo starting this week, with a nonstop flight
every Wednesday.
"We have had a big demand and our new flight will be
particularly useful for our customers traveling onward to the
Middle East as it offers convenient connections through Colombo
to Dubai, Kuwait and Riyadh," Srilankan's Manager for Indonesia
Lakshman Weerasooriya said in a statement.
The frequency increase was because of the popularity of the
route and improved market conditions in Jakarta, he said.
Srilankan now operates flights from Jakarta to Colombo via
Singapore on Mondays and Wednesdays. The service started in 2000.
-- JP
Chinese carrier to buy Airbus planes
BEIJING : China Eastern Airlines, one of China's largest
commercial carriers, will buy between 30 and 50 Airbus jetliners
over the next three years, the official China Daily reported
Saturday.
The purchase is part of the airline's expansion plan that also
includes opening new routes from Beijing and Shanghai to New
Delhi in March, the paper said.
The report did not say how much the deal would be worth
altogether. Earlier reports said the price tag could come to
US$2.7 billion depending on the numbers and types of planes
ordered.
Most of the planes ordered will be single aisle, 150-passenger
A320 jets. China Daily said the deal would also include five
A340-600 models which seat up to 380 passengers.
China Eastern is already set to add four Boeing 737 jetliners
to its fleet as part of a lump purchase of 36 of the planes by
Chinese airlines announced last year. --AP
Taiwan 3G Bids Total NT$46.383 billion
TAIPEI Taiwan's auction of five third-generation mobile
licenses will continue Monday, its 17th day, as none of the six
bidders is yet to drop out even though total bids already hit
46.383 billion new Taiwan dollars (US$1=NT$34.980) Saturday.
The total marked a significant 38% premium over the aggregate
reserve price of NT$33.6 billion and rose from NT$45.586 billion
Friday.
Bidders can raise the price a maximum 7% in each round. The
auction ends when one of the six contenders drops out. -- DJ
EU Commission about to drop Intel probe
NEW YORK The European Commission is about to drop its anti-
trust investigation of the Intel Corporation, according to
Saturday's New York Times, citing a "person close to the
investigation."
The newspaper quoted the person as saying "after careful
analysis of the complaints, the commission has decided that the
accusations are unfounded."
The Times said the EU regulators haven't identified those who
filed the complaints that triggered the probe, but it said
industry analysts say it was Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) of
Sunnyvale, Calif. and VIA Technologies of Taiwan. -- DJ