Starlux Airlines and Tigerair Taiwan yesterday announced new flights to Japan from Taichung and Kaohsiung.
Starlux said its direct flights between Taichung and Nagoya would begin on Oct. 25, with four flights each week in the initial stage via its A321neo aircraft.
With the addition of Taichung-Nagoya direct services, the airline’s Taichung-based aviation network would have 12 international destinations. The other 11 are: Tokyo, Kobe, Takamatsu, Okinawa, Miyakojima, Sapporo and Kumamoto in Japan; Da Nang and Phu Quoc in Vietnam; Busan in South Korea and Macau.
Photo: CNA
Nagoya serves as the gateway for travelers to explore central Japan, and its downtown area is rich in history, culture and local cuisine, Starlux CEO Glenn Chai (翟健華) said.
Through Nagoya, travelers can also access popular tourist destinations, such as Hida Takayama Municipal Ski Resort, Chai said.
Tigerair Taiwan, Taiwan’s low-cost carrier, said it would launch two new routes to Ishigaki and Komatsu next month, as it anticipates strong demand for overseas travel among residents of southern Taiwan.
The two new routes would bring the airline’s international routes from Kaohsiung to 11, it said.
Tigerair would then have a total of 45 international routes, with 19 operated exclusively by the airline, it added.
Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Okayama and Okinawa are among the most popular destinations for Taiwanese travelers, Tigerair said, adding that it expects demand to remain strong in the second half of the year.
It operates flights to Okinawa from Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, with an average load factor of 97.1 percent, it said.
Gooday Tours general manager Aron Huang (黃清涼), who serves as a specialist for Japanese tours in the Travel Quality Assurance Association, said 3.97 million Taiwanese traveled to Japan in the first six months of this year, up 20.9 percent from the same period last year.
Taiwan has emerged as Japan’s second-largest tourism source, preceded only by South Korea.
China remains Japan’s third-largest tourism source, although Beijing has urged its citizens to avoid travel to Japan.
Huang attributed the strong demand to the significant increase of flights to Japan, not only to Tokyo and Osaka, but to other cities as well.
The demand for Japan tours during the summer travel season remains strong despite the rising travel costs caused by airport tax hikes and inflation in Japan, Huang said.
Group tour costs are expected to slightly fall in the fourth quarter, following the summer travel season.
Tour prices could be even cheaper if people choose to travel a few days ahead of the nine-in-one local elections on Nov. 28.
“As people might choose to stay and vote in the elections, travel agencies expect the demand for outbound tourism to drop and are more likely to offer special prices for tours,” he said.
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