High-end carrier Starlux flys first long-haul leg to Los Angeles

Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines Co., which bills itself as a high-end carrier, plans to launch new US routes once a year as part of a major push into long-haul travel, company executives said.

The Taipei-based company, one of a handful of airlines to launch during Covid, celebrated its first intercontinental flight, from Taiwan to Los Angeles, on Wednesday. With some rival legacy Asian carriers still recovering from the pandemic, there’s a gap for new entrants to grab market share.

“We are fairly confident that we can expand our North American network by opening at least one new route every year in the next couple of years,” Starlux Chairman Chang Kuo-wei said. Chang, a qualified commercial pilot, flew and landed the Starlux Airbus SE A350 earlier that day.

Chief Strategy Officer Simon Liu said Starlux expects to launch flights to and from San Francisco before Christmas.

Liu also sought to play down delays in Airbus deliveries. Although Starlux is wholly reliant on the European planemaker for its jet orders, Liu said the issue was “not really serious.”

Chang, a former Eva Air Corp. executive, left Eva in 2016 and went on to launch Starlux, which is Taiwan’s third airline in a crowded marketplace, in 2020 just as Covid was spreading.

It has quickly amassed a fleet of 20 new Airbus aircraft, serving 17 cities in Asia Pacific. The pandemic, and tough competition, has meant Starlux hasn’t turned a profit yet.