Several weeks ago, EVA Air executives revealed plans to launch flights to a new destination in North America, which will be the carrier’s longest flight to date. I’d like to provide an update, as this new route is now bookable, so we know exactly when it will launch, and what the schedule will be like.
In this post:
EVA Air will start flying to Washington Dulles with 787s
As of June 26, 2026, EVA Air intends to launch a new 4x weekly route between Taipei (TPE) and Washington Dulles (IAD). The flight will operate with the following schedule:
BR4 Taipei to Washington departing 7:30PM arriving 10:30PM
BR3 Washington to Taipei departing 1:50AM arriving 5:45AM (+1 day)
The flight to the United States is blocked at 15hr, and will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and while the flight to Taiwan is blocked at 15hr55min, and will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
EVA Air will use a three-cabin Boeing 787-9 for the route, featuring 278 seats. This includes 26 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 224 economy class seats.
At 7,864 miles, this will be among EVA Air’s longest flights. Technically, Houston (IAH) is EVA Air’s furthest destination, at 7,939 miles. However, the Washington Dulles flight is scheduled to take longer, given that this route is more impacted by the closure of Russian airspace.
Personally I’m a huge fan of EVA Air’s business class, and rank it among the best in the world. While the hard product isn’t that great, EVA Air’s soft product is phenomenal, from the food, to the drinks, to the amenities, to the service.
How Washington Dulles fits into EVA Air’s route network
Washington Dulles will be EVA Air’s 10th destination in North America, complementing service to Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), Toronto (YYZ), and Vancouver (YVR).
So, what’s EVA Air’s motive for flying to Washington Dulles? According to the airline:
- Washington has a lot of business demand in political, military, financial, and technological sectors, which should help with filling the flight
- Transit passengers from other destinations in Asia and beyond account for around 60% of EVA Air’s passengers on North America flights, and the Washington Dulles flight is expected to have a similar passenger mix
- Washington Dulles is a United Airlines hub, and both airlines are in Star Alliance, enabling connectivity within the United States and beyond
- There are currently 320,000 Asian residents in the Washington DC area, of which 14,000 are Taiwanese (14,000 isn’t exactly a high number for launching a long haul route, but…)
I think another thing to keep in mind is that Taiwanese aviation is incredibly competitive, because in addition to EVA Air, you have China Airlines and Starlux Airlines. So there’s a competitive desire to launch routes before other Taiwanese airlines, and I imagine that’s also at play here. EVA Air is best positioned for Washington flights, given its Star Alliance membership.
Bottom line
As of June 2026, EVA Air intends to launch a new 4x weekly flight between Taipei and Washington Dulles with a 787, and the flight is now on sale. This will be EVA Air’s 10th destination in North America, and on top of that, EVA Air will be the first Taiwanese airline to fly to Washington Dulles.
What do you make of EVA Air launching Washington Dulles flights?
“Technically, Houston (IAH) is EVA Air’s furthest destination, at 7,939 miles. However, the Washington Dulles flight is scheduled to take longer.”
No, it’s not. IAH-TPE is blocked at over 16 hours. What an incredibly strange fact to get wrong.
Interestingly enough, it's easier to find EVA US connections ticketed on interline agreement with AS, rather than on United...
2am departure from IAD? Just about all the airport services are closed then. No lounges open, and they use the upstairs TSA precheck security line for all passengers. There's a bank of flights then primarily to El Salvador (often 5 departing in a 2-hour span) but that's it. Was TPE out of landing slots at a better time? IAD has plenty so the flight could have departed at 10am-noon like many other flights to Asia.
Oh wait a darn minute... the flight departs the DMV at 2AM... Hell to da no!
No award space in business I imagine?
Who knows… I was looking for a ticket to TPE recently and there were a few days when EVA had last-minute availablity ORD-TPE in J via Mileage Plus. IAD may also have lower loads, at least initially…
Wonderful! More options for me to get to Asia rather than having to connect out of JFK or ORD. Hope the J pricing is competitive.
YAY FOR EVA ENTERING THE THE DC MARKET!
The times seem a bit off, though. I was just reading an article that was saying that it seems that one of the best ways to fight jetlag is arriving in the morning, so maybe this is good for the ex-IAD flights, but for the flights ex-TPE the arrival time at IAD could be suboptimal.
Interesting IAD-TPE is “only” 15h55 given EVA’s JFK-TPE is 17h15 so whole 80 minutes longer!
I can’t imagine there’s a single US connection here that isn’t better served through another US EVA destination or via Tokyo…
effectively zero connecting options in IAD on arrival from TPE and most layovers unlikely to be short in IAD heading back to TPE/Asia with that 2am departure time. they're clearly banking on Star Alliance loyalty in DC.
They don't need connections. A metro area if 5+ million people, with tons of people with ethnic and cultural ties to Southeast Asia, will have no problem filling this flight.
"They don't need connections."
Famous last words.
You're acting like they have the market to themselves, versus United/ANA (who are not going to be keen to leak passengers, despite Star Alliance), Air China, Turkish, and the 3 major Middle Eastern connection carriers; all of who've lately been emphasizing their connections to southeast Asia.
The more accurate term is they don't need US-side connections. Their TPE hub is their source of connections. They operate a massive connecting hub out of TPE, which is how they get dual feed from both ends.
I live in DC. No connection required, thank you. Just wished the flight's scheduled arrival time was earlier though.
That's roughly an hour or more to get home by train.
Dc area has a TON of Vietnamese people. This is also a great way to get to Vietnam
I said the same thing initially. You have tons of Vietnamese in the DMV along with a sprinkling of Filipino, Cambodian, etc.
Then expect to have at least 20 wheelchair passengers when boarding.
Someone sounds very jealous
@Jason - good old Eden Center in Falls Church!