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Back in May, I wrote about STARLUX Airlines (the Taiwanese carrier that launched operations in 2020 and currently serves four US destinations) planning to add flights to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) as its fifth US city. One of its biggest competitors, China Airlines (also based in Taiwan), apparently didn’t like this and it just added its own flights between Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX).
STARLUX’ flights will operate 3x weekly beginning on January 15th using Airbus A350-900 aircraft (this will increase to 4x weekly in March). These aircraft offer four First Class, 26 Business Class, 36 Premium Economy, and 240 Economy Class seats. China Airlines is beating them to the punch and starting the route on December 3rd. It will also fly 3x weekly also using Airbus A350-900 aircraft with 32 Business Class, 31 Premium Economy, and 243 Economy Class seats. Flights between Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) will be nonstop to the United States while return flights will have a stop at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
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 both of these airlines want to capitalize on transit between the two cities.
Flights to Taiwan from the United States are already 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. 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 the recent business news.
Anthony’s Take: It will be interesting to see if Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) has enough traffic to support these two airlines. China Airlines is a member of SkyTeam and STARLUX is not part of an alliance. American Airlines dominates Phoenix, but neither have a codeshare or any other partnership with the airline.
(Image Credits: Airbus and STARLUX.)
(H/T: Aeroroutes.)
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1 comment
China Airlines has been operating charter flights into PHX for 2 years. With the new Semiconductor factory almost complete (they will start a second one shortly after the first one is completed), demand is here. It will be a nice way to get to Asia from PHX, skipping LAX or SFO completely. Since China Airlines is a SkyTeam member, this is a huge plus for DL flyers since DL is making PHX a focus city.