Taiwan’s Starlux eyes flights to Australia

Starlux Airlines is spreadings its wings across Asia and to North America, and Australia could also find its way onto that list.

The Taiwanese start-up, which describes itself as a “detail-oriented luxury airline”, is steadily building up its fleet of Airbus A330neo and A350 jets –and while its initial long-haul focus is on North America, it plans to eventually fly to Europe and Australia, CEO Glenn Chai told Reuters.

Starlux will launch A350 flights to Los Angeles next week, with San Francisco to follow by years end – and “New York is a must,” Chai adds.

Closer to home, Australia could be served by either the A350 or the A330neo.

Both of which sport modern business class with free WiFi, although the A350 has sliding privacy doors in business, which our exclusive Starlux A350 business class review described as “a suitably stellar offering”, bookended by first class and premium economy.

Australia’s east coast capitals are already served by Taiwanese rivals China Airlines and EVA Air, which are respectively members of SkyTeam and Star Alliance, and Starlux has already suggested it could join Oneworld in an effort to level up its global ambitions.

“Once we have reached a certain level of growth, we will certainly become a member of an alliance to provide more convenience to our passengers,” a Starlux spokesperson previously told Executive Traveller.