EVA Airways Corp., Taiwan's second largest carrier, posted a wider second-quarter loss after fuel costs surged and slower economic growth damped travel demand.

The loss was NT$3.68 billion compared with NT$1.36 billion a year earlier. That was worse than the NT$3.05 billion loss median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of three analysts. The second-quarter loss was derived by subtracting first-quarter results from six-month figures released yesterday.

EVA Air and larger rival China Airlines have cut flights and raised surcharges, seeking to offset fuel prices that doubled in a year. The two Taiwanese carriers are also banking on the start of regular weekend flights to the mainland to reverse the island's slumping demand for overseas flights.

"People just aren't traveling," Peter Tzeng, an analyst at Polaris Securities Co. in Taipei, said before the earnings report. "The effect from direct links will gradually kick in."

The number of overseas trips made by Taiwan's residents fell 2 percent from a year earlier to 4.33 million in the first half, according to the government's statistics bureau.

EVA's second-quarter sales climbed 1.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$22.4 billion, smaller than the 6 percent gain in the previous three months, according to monthly filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The carrier's first-half loss widened to NT$5.97 billion, from NT$1.69 billion a year earlier, the company said yesterday. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong's biggest airline, and Thai Airways International Pcl have also posted losses as carriers worldwide struggle with surging fuel costs.

The price of jet fuel doubled in the year ended June in Singapore trading and reached a record US$181.85 a barrel on July 3. It's since slipped 25 percent in line with falling oil prices.

EVA Airways closed unchanged at NT$11.6 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange before the earnings announcement. The stock has slumped 14 percent this year, compared with the 17 percent decline in the benchmark TAIEX index. China Airlines has lost 26 percent.

Taiwanese and Chinese carriers started regular weekend charter flights across the Taiwan Strait in July, after the two sides signed an agreement in June for easing restrictions. Governments in Taipei and Beijing have curbed direct transport links since the two split in 1949.

Cathay Pacific, Asia's third-biggest carrier by market value, reported a first-half loss of HK$663 million, compared with a net income of HK$2.58 billion a year earlier. It was the carrier's first loss in five years.