Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines granted US route authorities

The Taiwanese Ministry of Transportation has granted Starlux Airlines (JX, Taipei Taoyuan) route authorities to serve the United States, the Central News Agency (CNA) has reported.  Pending the issuance of the requisite US foreign air carrier permit and/or exemption authority, Starlux told CNA it plans to activate its transpacific routes in June 2022. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) and EVA Air (BR, Taipei Taoyuan) currently connect Taipei with the US using a combination of cargo and passenger flights. In terms of passenger services, China Airlines serves Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Ontario, and San Francisco while EVA Air serves Chicago O’Hare, Houston Inc’l, Los Angeles, New York JFK, San Francisco, and Seattle. United Airlines (UA, Chicago O’Hare) is the lone US carrier plying the Taipei-San Francisco route. Starlux is expecting seventeen A350s to deliver from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) (nine -900s and eight -1000s) along with a single leased aircraft. Under its pre-COVID strategy, it planned to add five A350-900s beginning in late 2021 while its A350-1000s would have begun arriving during the third quarter of 2022. However, given current market conditions, those dates are likely to have been adjusted, the report said. At present, Starlux uses four A321-200NXs to serve Penang, Macau Int’l, and Da Nang, with Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Cebu, Tokyo Narita, and Osaka Kansai to follow.