Taiwan’s Starlux To Grow U.S. Network With Ontario Addition
The FAA has temporarily banned all mixed helicopter and fixed-wing flying along the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), taking extreme measures to eliminate the risk of another mid-air collision.
Taiwanese full-service carrier Starlux Airlines has scheduled the launch of a new route to the U.S., with plans to connect Taipei and Ontario, California.
Ontario will become the airline’s fourth U.S. destination, joining Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). It will also be the airline’s second gateway in the Los Angeles Basin, providing travelers with an alternative to LAX.
As first published by Aeroroutes, flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) and Ontario International Airport (ONT) are set to commence on June 2, operating four times per week. The carrier intends to deploy a four-class 306-seat Airbus A350-900 on the 6,816-mi. (5,923-nm) sector. It currently has a fleet of eight A350-900s, with two more on order.
Starlux will become the second carrier to serve Taipei-Ontario nonstop alongside China Airlines, which currently provides daily flights using a mix of A350-900 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. China Airlines initially launched the route in January 2018 but paused flights from March 2020 through June 2021 because of the pandemic.
With this expansion, Starlux’s Taiwan-U.S. network will increase to 28 roundtrip flights per week by July, offering approximately 14,700 two-way seats. The airline also plans to operate 10 weekly flights to LAX and daily service to SEA and SFO during the summer 2025 season, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data.
The addition of a second destination in the Greater Los Angeles area will target the large Taiwanese population living there. Figures from the 2020 census report indicate that there were some 263,000 Taiwanese Americans residing in south California, of which 167,000 were in Greater Los Angeles.
Sabre Market Intelligence data also shows that Taipei-Los Angeles was the largest Taiwan-U.S. city pair in 2024, with about 345,000 two-way O&D passengers. Taipei-San Francisco ranked as the second largest with 281,000 passengers, followed by Taipei-New York with 169,000 passengers.
The new route from TPE comes after United Airlines confirmed plans to add a route linking ONT and Chicago O’Hare International Airport from May 22. Operations will be daily aboard 166-seat 737-800 aircraft, complementing the Star Alliance member’s existing nonstop service from ONT to Denver, Houston and San Francisco.
ONT welcomed more than 7 million travelers in 2024, marking a rise of 27% compared with 2019. The airport is currently served by 11 airlines, connecting to 21 domestic and three international destinations, OAG data shows.
