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United Airlines to resume daily flights to San Francisco

United Airlines will resume daily nonstop passenger and cargo services between Taipei and San Francisco beginning today, while ending its daily passenger service between Taipei and Nagoya, Japan, the company's office in Taiwan announced yesterday.

The Taipei-San Francisco route will be served by Boeing 777s, company officials in Taipei said, adding that the service will provide outbound passengers from Taiwan with access to more than 200 global destinations.

The Chicago-based carrier launched the Taipei-San Francisco route in 1987 but suspended this route in April 2003 because of the outbreak of SARS in East Asia.

United decided to resume the route after the company's recent assessment confirmed market demand.

The airline opened a Taipei-Nagoya passenger service in April 2005 because of growing demand from visitors to the 2005 Aichi World Exposition. However, fierce competition from Taiwan's two major carriers -- China Airlines and EVA Air -- on the same route prompted United to halt the service.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Transasia Airways Corp (復興航空) announced yesterday that the carrier would offer direct charter flights between Taipei and Vladivostok, Russia's largest port on the Pacific coast, from July 4 to the end of October.

Transasia will fly twice a week -- one departing from Taipei and one from Vladivostok, the carrier said. The flight time is about four hours, it said.

Currently, there are about 400 Russian nationals in Taiwan and 14,000 Taiwanese living in Russia, Transasia said, citing official statistics. The flights could also serve a growing number of tourists to what was once Russia's most important marine bases in the Pacific region, Transasia said.

` Additional reporting by Jessie Ho
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