EVA Air: no plans for Sydney-Taipei flights or Virgin Australia codeshare
By David Flynn, June 21 2013
EVA Air president Austin Cheng has scotched rumours that the Taiwan airline will launch Sydney-Taipei flights later this year, or indeed at any time in the near future.
“We currently lack that capability for that route, it depends on the aircraft” Cheng told Australian Business Traveller in Taipei earlier this week, adding that his first priority is to increase EVA’s Brisbane-Taipei schedule from two flights per week to daily.
“We will focus on having Brisbane daily before adding Sydney or Melbourne” Cheng said.
However, Australia’s largest cities will still need to tack a back seat to other Asian countries where EVA sees greater potential for growth.
“Our focus is much more on mainland China and Japan” Cheng said.
No plans for Virgin Australia codeshare
Asked about the possibility of a codeshare agreement with Virgin Australia to help travellers from other Australian cities connect to EVA’s Brisbane service, an EVA spokesman told Australian Business Traveller that the airline has not had any discussions with Virgin Australia.
And while in March this year Qantas ended its codeshare agreement with EVA Air to favour oneworld partner Cathay Pacific and its offshoot Dragonair, the spokesman said that EVA still retained an interline agreement with Qantas to facilitate Australian bookings.
Read: How interlining and codeshares matter to your flights
EVA Air entered the Star Alliance network this week, joining the likes of Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, United and Air New Zealand in the world's largest airline alliance.
Australian Business Traveller travelled to Taipei as a guest of Star Alliance.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 May 2013
Total posts 12
Interesting article! Thanks for the info.
“We will focus on having Brisbane daily before adding Sydney or Melbourne” Cheng said.
Did this sound like they have plans to make it daily, or more that daily Brisbane flights would need to happen before they could justify Sydney/Melbourne flights?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Neither, just that BNE daily would have higher priority than starting SYD or MEL.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
I really don't understand why EVA bothers with Brisbane only two days a week, surely there is not much demand for such an infrequent service from such a small market as Brisbane. Yes, Sydney would be more expensive but wouldn't it attract a lot more passengers to more than make up for this?
Ansett Global Rewards
30 Oct 2012
Total posts 16
Eva's competing with China Airlines and the massive CX presence in Brisbane (keep in mind that the Hong Kong to Taipei route is one of CX/KA's most lucrative routes) so there's a pretty big market for Taiwan in Brisbane.
30 Oct 2012
Total posts 23
There's a bigger Taiwanese population in Brisbane than there is in Sydney.
The Taipei - Brisbane service used to be a thrice weekly service but was reduced because they needed the aircraft. They've also previously retimed the service to an evening departure from Brisbane to try and win over some Asia/Europe bound passengers from CX and CZ.
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