Thai Airways posts $30m loss
Thai Airways posts $30m loss
BANGKOK: Thai Airways announced on Friday a 1.27 billion baht (US$30 million) loss in the three months to June compared to 3.45 billion baht profits a year ago, as the SARS crisis turned its balance sheet red.
The airline said that in the nine months to June its net profit fell 24 percent to 7.02 billion baht from 9.22 billion baht in the previous corresponding period.
In June the flag carrier said it expected to post an operating loss of 6.0 billion baht for April-July due to damage caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic.
The deadly form of pneumonia swept through parts of the region earlier this year, devastating the regional tourism industry and cutting Thai Airways' passenger traffic by 40 percent in May.
However, the airline said earlier this month that it expected its passenger loads to improve to normal levels of 70 percent in the three months to September.--AFP
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. ~CorporateBrief-ThaiAir-loss Thai Airways posts $30m loss JP/14/BRIEF
Dragonair drops lawsuit against Cathay
HONG KONG: Hong Kong-based carrier Dragonair has decided to drop its petition to quash a license given to Cathay Pacific for resuming its China flights after a 13-year absence, the airline's spokeswoman said on Friday.
"We are not proceeding with the judicial review," she said, without giving details.
The decision came just two weeks before a court review was due.
In May, the airline challenged in court the decision by Hong Kong's Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) to grant Cathay Pacific the right to fly to Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.
Dragonair said then that ATLA did not have the power under the Basic Law -- Hong Kong's mini constitution -- to grant licenses for Cathay to fly to Shanghai and Xiamen.
In April, ATLA had granted approval to Cathay to resume flying to the three Chinese cites for the first time since 1990 despite objections from Dragonair, which, over the past 13 years, has been the only Hong Kong-based airline with rights to fly scheduled passenger services to China
In approving flagship carrier Cathay's application, the three- member ATLA panel rejected claims by Dragonair that a resumption of Cathay's flights to China would financially devastate the smaller airline.
ATLA said on April 17 that Cathay would be allowed to operate up to three round-trips each day on lucrative routes to Shanghai and Beijing, and three services to Xiamen each week. The licence will be valid for five years.
Since ATLA granted Cathay's application, the Hong Kong government has designated Cathay as the second local carrier to operate on the Beijing route.
Dragonair is 43.29 percent owned by China National Aviation, and Cathay Pacific has a 19 percent stake.--AFP
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. ~CorporateBrief-ThaiAir-loss Thai Airways posts $30m loss JP/14/BRIEF
MCI may have avoided taxes
NEW YORK: Bankrupt telecoms group MCI, formerly WorldCom, may have avoided "hundreds of millions of dollars in state taxes" between 1999 and 2001 on the basis of advice from KPMG accountants, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.
In a bid to minimize its state taxes, the telecoms group moved up to US$19 billion in revenue, over three years, through a Delaware-based subsidiary of the company.
"Because Delaware doesn't tax the income of out-of-state corporations, the move substantially reduced WorldCom's nonfederal income-tax obligations," the newspaper said citing an accounting analysis filed as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings.
KPMG advised WorldCom to declare much of its regular income as being returns on intellectual property, rather than as receipts from sales of telephone services, the newspaper said.
An MCI spokeswoman declined to address the claims in the report.
"We have generally addressed taxes and related issues in our plan of reorganization and look forward to discussing them more fully during our (bankruptcy) confirmation hearing," said MCI spokeswoman Claire Hassatt.
The hearing, which is expected to represent one of the final hurdles enabling MCI to reemerge from bankruptcy, is due to occur Sept. 8 and could last some two weeks, according to Hassatt. --AFP