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STARLUX Airlines is a Taiwanese carrier that launched operations in 2020. The airline currently serves four US destinations from Taipei Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE): Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Ontario International Airport (ONT) (launching June 2nd), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Now, STARLUX is planning to add Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) as its fifth US city served. It will also be the only nonstop flight to Asia from this airport when it launches.
The flights will operate 3x weekly beginning in February 2026 using an Airbus A350-900 aircraft. These offer four First Class, 26 Business Class, 36 Premium Economy, and 240 Economy Class seats.
Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix, commented:
Phoenix’ first non-stop flight to Asia reflects the incredible strides we’ve made with our local economy, and our emergence as an international city. TSMC’s historic investment in Phoenix has brought thousands of high wage jobs and boosted our reputation as a semiconductor hub, and now it’s helping increase air service demand.”
Flights to Taiwan from the United States are pretty competitive with Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) having up to 7x daily flights (including China Airlines, Eva Air, and STARLUX), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) flying up to 6x daily (including China Airlines, Eva Air, STARLUX, and United Airlines), and 3x daily from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) (including China Airlines, Eva Air, STARLUX, and Delta Air Lines). China Airlines and STARLUX currently fly 1x daily and 4x weekly to/from Ontario International Airport (ONT). China Airlines has flown this route since 2018. It’s about to get some competition from STARLUX. There is currently no nonstop flight to Asia from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX). This is exciting news for local flyers and driven by some recent business news.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produces chips for NVIDIA and several others. It has annual revenue around $70 billion. The company is coming to Phoenix with a huge investment (up to $160 million) and STARLUX is smart to capitalize on transit between the two cities.
Last June, I wrote about STARLUX’ aspirations to join an airline alliance. oneworld® doesn’t currently have a Taiwanese carrier (SkyTeam has China Airlines and Star Alliance has EVA Air). STARLUX’ CEO has stated that the airline would like to join the oneworld® Alliance this year. That seems a little rushed, but adding flights to an American Airlines hub won’t hurt when/if it does join.
Anthony’s Take: STARLUX continues to expand in the United States. It will be interesting to see if it does join oneworld® in the future.
(Image Credits: STARLUX.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
