In May 2025, Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines revealed its next destination in the United States, and it’s not what you’d necessarily expect. It’s also the first destination in the United States which isn’t served by at least one of Taiwan’s two other global carriers (China Airlines and EVA Air).
I want to provide an update, as the launch date and schedule for the route have just been revealed, and the flight is also expected to be bookable shortly.
In this post:
Starlux launching Taipei to Phoenix flights as of January 2026
As of January 15, 2026, Starlux Airlines will launch 3x weekly flights between Taipei Taoyuan Airport (TPE) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX). Specifically, the flight will operate with the following schedule:
JX26 Taipei to Phoenix departing 8:45PM arriving 5:40PM
JX25 Phoenix to Taipei departing 10:45PM arriving 4:55AM (+2 days)
The 7,401-mile route will operate in both directions on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The eastbound flight is blocked at 11hr55min, while the westbound flight is blocked at 15hr10min.
Once launched, this will be the carrier’s longest route to date. As is the case on all of the carrier’s routes to the United States, this will be flown by an Airbus A350-900. That plane is equipped with 306 seats, including four first class seats, 26 business class seats, 36 premium economy seats, and 240 economy seats. I’ve reviewed Starlux’s excellent A350 business class.
Phoenix will be Starlux’s fifth destination in the United States, complementing flights to Los Angeles (LAX), Ontario (ONT), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA).
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego broke the news of this route several weeks back, and shared that this comes as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to invest $165 billion into its Phoenix facilities. As she explained:
“Phoenix’s first non-stop flight to Asia reflects the incredible strides we’ve made with our local economy, and our emergence as an international city. TSMC’s historic investment in Phoenix has brought thousands of high wage jobs and boosted our reputation as a semiconductor hub, and now it’s helping increase air service demand.”
Here’s what Starlux Airlines Chairman K.W. Chang had to say about this announcement:
“I knew from the moment I set foot in Phoenix that STARLUX should make the investment to fly here. Not only is the growth of business between Taipei and Phoenix staggering, it’s a perfect match for our level of service. We are proud and honored to be the first carrier to provide nonstop Asia service for the Phoenix community.”
My take on Starlux’s latest long haul expansion
Up until this point, all of Starlux Airlines’ routes to the United States have been to markets that are already served by China Airlines, EVA Air, or both. On the one hand, I understand why they’re replicating those markets, because they’re ones with a lot of demand to Taiwan and beyond. On the other hand, it’s also fun to see some innovation.
In this case, Starlux isn’t just serving a market that doesn’t have service from Taiwan’s other carriers, but it’s a market that doesn’t have any service to Asia. So this is a massive win for the local community.
Now, it’s worth remembering that Starlux has a partnership with Alaska Airlines, and Starlux wants to join the oneworld alliance (though it remains to be seen if that comes to fruition, given the interests of various airlines).
With Starlux flying to Phoenix, you’d certainly think that an American partnership would make sense, given the connectivity that opens up. At the same time, without mutual alliance membership (at a minimum), I think it’s unlikely we’ll see much in the way of connectivity, especially since American has its own transpacific joint venture with Japan Airlines. In other words, American doesn’t actually want people taking this flight, as things currently stand.
While we’ll see how this plays out, it’s worth noting that in the past couple of weeks, China Airlines has also revealed plans to fly to Phoenix, and that service may launch before the end of 2025. Oddly, the airline reportedly plans to fly nonstop in the eastbound direction, and stop in Los Angeles in the westbound direction, which is a bit more unusual.
Bottom line
As of January 15, 2026, Starlux Airlines plans to launch 3x weekly flights to Phoenix. This is a huge win for Arizona, as it’s the state’s first nonstop regularly scheduled link to Asia. How cool to see Starlux finally adding a route to the United States that isn’t served by China Airlines or EVA Air. However, it sounds like China Airlines won’t be far behind (or might even beat Starlux), and is also planning Phoenix flights.
What do you make of Starlux launching Phoenix flights?
Fun fact: if Starlux finally gets to join OW, it would make Taiwan the second country to have flag carriers in all 3 alliances (or third you count HKG in the PRC).
Only China Airlines is a flag carrier. EVA and Starlux are not, strictly speaking.
Who are you counting? If the US, none of the US3 are flag carriers, are they?
lots of burnout and work-related anxiety on this flight
Dear Ben, a sincere request: when updating a new route launch article with the operating schedule (or) notifying that it’s for sale, please don’t delete the existing comments of the article. A lot of important context is lost when that happens, and one needs to go to web.archive.org to search for a copy, if it exists. Thanks!
With respect to Starlux specifically, I wouldn’t be surprised if it remains focused exclusively on connecting Southeast Asia...
Dear Ben, a sincere request: when updating a new route launch article with the operating schedule (or) notifying that it’s for sale, please don’t delete the existing comments of the article. A lot of important context is lost when that happens, and one needs to go to web.archive.org to search for a copy, if it exists. Thanks!
With respect to Starlux specifically, I wouldn’t be surprised if it remains focused exclusively on connecting Southeast Asia (plus Japan) to North America, flying no further west than BKK — especially as it has a shortage of widebodies to expand to Europe. That said, I’ll be very curious about that A350-1000 order, as JX will almost definitely try to launch JFK, if not IAD or ORD, in the years to come.
I wonder if this is a case where supply creates demand.
PHX doesn't have a particularly large Asian population, but I'm sure the large metro population there would be interested in visiting and tourism, given how lacking their Asia connections were before, perhaps these flights could be filled up decently.
nah, the Taiwanese are conservative by nature and aren't gonna just open random routes..... it's all driven by TSMC demand
Yes and TSMC demand alone is not enough to fill the planes though. We've seen this for example with TPE to KMJ (another TSMC route), where JX upgauged to widebodies and now the planes are mostly empty.
There is almost certainly the expectation that the direct Asia connectivity will stimulate demand from PHX. With the increase in competition from CI as well, there is more capacity than TSMC alone warrants.
Lucky, i think the biggest reason for this route is because of the TSMC investment and FAB that's open now in Arizona. There's tons of business travel and also expat families that have moved from TW to AZ to train US engineers and staff
It is definitively this. Direct flight instead of having to connect for business, as TSMC continues their rapid growth
that was implied in the post
@ben: can you give us a China airline link in English?
Also, as excited as I am about the starlux flight, the timing stinks. A departure Friday or even Saturday would have been preferable.
@ Cy -- Unfortunately there's no official English announcement yet, but as soon as more details are released, I'll be sure to report back.
How is the relationship between EVA and Starlux going to evolve, seeing as they are owned by the same person. Do you think there will be a merger to make a definitive Taiwanese airline, or keep them separate?
There was a family feud and the Starlux guy was kicked out
They aren't owned by the same person, where is all this made up stuff coming from?
I see this lie regurgitated everywhere.
I personally think China Airlines will have more success in Phoenix because of their recent partnership with Southwest Airlines, who has the largest market share in Sky Harbor.
Unless Starlux launches a partnership with American Airlines, CI will likely get the edge.
AA actually has the largest market share in Sky Harbor overall at ~40% vs WN's ~35%. Starlux has mentioned that they are interested in joining OneWorld which would give them feed via AS for SEA-TPE, as well as PHX-TPE and LAX-TPE from AA (and to a lesser extent AS) which makes a ton of sense for them.