US greenlights flights by Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines

Plans by Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines (JX, Taipei Taoyuan) for long-haul flights to Los Angeles Int’l have been given the thumbs up by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) which has granted the young carrier a foreign air carrier permit effective from April 26, 2021. According to a regulatory notice by the DOT, Starlux is now authorised to operate scheduled and charter flights ferrying passengers, property, and mail between the two countries. Under the terms of the permit, Starlux may operate scheduled flights from points behind Taiwan, via Taiwan and intermediate points, to point/s in the US and beyond. It may also operate charter flights between any point/s in Taiwan and any point/s the US, and between any point/s in the US and any point/s in a third territory or territories, provided that such service constitutes part of a continuous operation, with or without a change of aircraft, that includes service to Taiwan for the purpose of carrying local traffic between Taiwan and the US. Starlux is also authorised to operate other foreign charters subject to the DOT’s regulations. As previously reported, this follows a decision by Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation in November 2020 to grant Starlux permission to operate A350-900 flights between Taipei and Los Angeles Int’l, San Francisco, CA, Honolulu, Guam Int’l, Seattle Tacoma Int’l, and San José, CA, as well as New York JFK, New York Newark, Washington Dulles, Houston Intc’l, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami Int’l, Boston, and Ontario. Starlux made its debut on regional flights to Macau Int’l, Penang, and Da Nang shortly before the outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020, when it announced its intentions to initially fly routes in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, gradually developing its trans-oceanic routes to North America starting in 2022. The airline in March 2019 ordered seventeen A350XWBs – eight A350-1000s and nine A350-900s – delivery of which, the carrier said, was scheduled to begin in the second half of 2021. The company’s existing fleet of five A321-200NXs, leased from GECAS, currently fly regional routes to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Kuala Lumpur Int’l, Macau, Osaka Kansai and Tokyo Narita, and Penang, according to the ch-aviation schedules module.