Starlux Airlines, the newest international carrier in Taiwan, yesterday announced that it would launch direct flights from Taoyuan to Kumamoto, Japan, in September, the airline’s seventh Japanese destination.
It would provide three round-trip flights to Kumamoto a week initially, starting on Sept. 1, with bookings opening yesterday, Starlux Airlines said.
The airline in April launched direct flights to Sendai, Japan.
Photo courtesy of Starlux Airlines
It would use Airbus A321neo aircraft, which have 188 seats, on the Kumamoto route, it said.
In addition to Sendai, Starlux flies to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Okinawa in Japan.
A delegation of politicians and Diet members from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party in Kumamoto Prefecture, led by Tetsushi Sakamoto, the party’s deputy secretary-general, early last month called for the resumption of direct flights between the prefecture and Taiwan.
Flights between Kumamoto and Kaohsiung started in October 2015, but were suspended in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said.
Kumamoto is a draw for tourists and also has a well-founded semiconductor industry, so the route would provide a convenient option for business travelers from Taiwan and Japan, the airline said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is building a wafer plant in Kumamoto through a joint venture, with mass production scheduled to start by the end of next year.
In addition to Japan, Starlux flies to 10 other Asian destinations in Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Macau.
On April 26, the carrier launched direct flights to Los Angeles, its first destination outside Asia.
Starlux is planning to fly to San Francisco at the end of this year and to Seattle by the middle of next year, while the company is expected to launch direct flights to New York in 2025 at the earliest.
The airline industry has received a boost from eased border controls after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starlux posted NT$1.68 billion (US$54.8 million) in consolidated sales in April, up from NT$92.76 million in the same month last year.
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