New budget airline takes off in Taiwan
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Taiwan’s newest low-cost carrier, V Air, launched its maiden flight today, connecting Taipei with Bangkok.
The new airline, which is a subsidiary of Taiwan’s third largest carrier, TransAsia Airways, took off from its home base at Taoyuan International Airport on Wednesday 17 December 2014, marking the start of a new daily service to the Thai capital.
V Air’s chairman Vincent Lin and CEO Eleni Lung were both onboard the maiden flight.
“We are thrilled to participating V Air’s inauguration; this event makes us feeling like we are celebrating a birthday party of our own child,” Lin said.
V Air will now serve Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport every day using a 194-seat, all-economy Airbus A321 aircraft. Flights will depart Taipei at 0640 and arrive in Bangkok at 0910. The return flight will then take off at 1010, getting back into Taiwan at 1510.
And the airline’s Thai expansion will continue next month with the launch of flights to Chiang Mai. Commencing on 7 January 2015, this new service will operate four times a week.
The launch of V Air marks the second phase of Taiwan’s budget airline revolution, which started in September with the arrival of Tigerair Taiwan – a joint venture between Singapore’s Tiger Airways and Taiwan’s national carrier, China Airlines. With TransAsia now launching V Air, two of Taiwan’s three biggest airlines now have budget subsidiaries. EVA Air however, has previously said it has no plans to enter the low-cost sector.
V Air will operate a brand new fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft in an all-economy configuration, and will focus on destinations in Southeast and Northeast Asia, within a four-hour flight radius of Taipei. Next year the airline plans to expand its fleet to five aircraft.
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