EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest airline, is set to launch daily flight service between Greater Kaohsiung and Osaka, Japan, next year.
The carrier said in a statement on Wednesday that it plans to use Airbus SAS A321-200 aircraft, which have 184 seats, to provide one flight per day from Feb. 5 in a bid to expand its network from southern Taiwan to Northeast Asia.
“The introduction of services between Greater Kaohsiung and Osaka is the outcome of the company’s successful development in the market of southern Taiwan,” EVA said.
EVA launched a regular route from Greater Kaohsiung to Tokyo last year, which has seen an average passenger load reach more than 80 percent — evidence of the robust demand from the region.
Meanwhile, Vietnam-based budget airline VietJet yesterday said it would offer 15,000 free one-way tickets on its new route between Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate the air link, which is scheduled to open on Friday next week.
The promotional tickets, which will be valid between March 16 and Oct. 24 next year, will be available online on Wednesday through Friday next week, according to the budget airline.
Vietjet is set to operate five round trips per week using Airbus A320 jets, which would constitute a weekly capacity of 1,800 seats.
Separately, Garuda Indonesia, the flag carrier of the Southeast Asian country, plans to end operations of its Taiwanese arm by the end of this year because of dissatisfactory results since resuming flights to Taiwan in 2012.
About 30 employees are to be laid off, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Garuda ended its own flight service between Taipei and Jakarta on Aug. 11, but the airline is set to continue flight services between Taipei and Jakarta through code-sharing agreements with China Airlines Ltd (中華航空).
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