EVA Airways’ maiden flight on its new Taipei-Milan route took off yesterday morning from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and was headed to the carrier’s first new destination since Taiwan reopened its borders on Oct. 13.
“The Taipei-Milan route symbolizes the post-pandemic recovery for the air travel market,” EVA Airways chairman Steve Lin (林寶水) told a news conference.
Flight BR95 to Milan, which was full, took off just before 10am and was scheduled to arrive at its destination at about 6:30pm Milan time.
Photo: CNA
The Italian city is EVA Air’s fifth European destination after Paris, Amsterdam, London and Vienna, and the carrier is to launch flights to Munich as part of its network on Thursday next week.
Adding more European destinations was not only aimed at serving the European market, but also boosting EVA Air’s transit business, Lin said.
“With EVA Air flying to its fifth destination in Europe, we hope it will further help connect its flight networks in Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Europe,” he said.
“We want to draw more Italian tourists and businesspeople to Taiwan, but we also hope they can use Taiwan as a transit hub when traveling to other Asian countries,” he said.
The carrier offers flights between Taoyuan and Milan twice a week, departing from Taiwan on Tuesdays and Saturdays and leaving Milan on Wednesdays and Sundays.
It will alternate between Boeing 777-300ERs and Boeing 787s for the 15-hour flight.
The route was scheduled to be launched in February 2020, but was pushed back due to COVID-19, which erupted in early 2020 and led to a dramatic slowdown in international air travel as countries closed their borders.
Attending the ceremony for the maiden flight to Milan were Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) and Italian Representative to Taiwan Davide Giglio.
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