Taiwan's Starlux Airlines flies high by betting on luxury

Taiwan startup Starlux Airlines, founded in 2018 after a succession feud at now-competitor EVA Air, is riding its luxury-forward approach to growth. The international-only carrier has rapidly expanded its service network since beginning operations in 2020. Starlux uses Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport as a hub to serve 18 destinations around the world, including in Southeast Asia and Japan. COVID-19 kept the company in the red in the beginning. But the carrier reported a net profit of roughly 300m New Taiwan dollars ($9.4m) in the January-June period of 2023, its first for a six-month period. Sales came to NT$9.8b, 15 times the year-earlier figure. Founder Chang Kuo-wei is the fourth son of the late Chang Yung-far, who founded Evergreen Group, which owns EVA Air. Chang Kuo-wei served as EVA's chairman for a time. But when Chang Yung-far died in 2016, a succession feud broke out among his sons, and Chang Kuo-wei was forced out of EVA, prompting him to launch a new airline himself. At a news conference announcing the launch of Starlux in 2018, Chang Kuo-wei sounded confident that the airline would grow quickly because of his own experience in the industry. As a full-service carrier, it jumped directly into the fray in a Taiwanese market dominated by EVA and China Airlines. Competition among Taiwanese full-service airlines is fierce, with midtier carrier Far Eastern Air Transport forced to cease operations over financial difficulties in 2019. Entering the market was a gamble -- but Chang Kuo-wei, a certified pilot who knows the industry inside and out, had a plan. Story has more.<br/>