A major international air carrier in Taiwan will resume its direct commercial Taipei-Paris service starting tomorrow, as oil prices have dropped and demand is constant, the airline said yesterday.
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) said it would offer three passenger flights a week from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to France’s Charles de Gaulle Airport, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The return flights from Paris to Taipei will be available on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, it said.
EVA’s first flight on the resumed route, which departs tomorrow, is already 80 percent full, said Eyvva Chou, assistant deputy chief of the airline’s reservation department.
The airline’s direct flights between the two cities take 12 to 14 hours, which is considerably quicker than the travel time on other airlines that usually stop over in a third city between Taipei and Paris.
EVA had suspended its operation of the Taipei-Paris route in November 2007, citing deficits caused by soaring oil prices. In addition, the high fees for flying over Russian airspace on the route also made the operation prohibitively expensive, the airline said.
After it resumes the service, EVA will be flying its new Boeing 777-300ERs, which will use 20 percent less fuel than the Boeing 747-400s that it previously operated on the Taipei-Paris route, the airline said in a statement.
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