This new airline is raising the bar, from first class to luxury

STARLUX Airlines, a Taiwan-based carrier that just celebrated its inaugural flight from Taipei to Los Angeles on April 26, bills itself as a “luxury airline.” That may sound like a contradiction at a time when airlines are anything but luxurious – and the only new brands to make their debut in recent years, Breeze and Avelo, have distinguished themselves with low fares.

Indeed, Starlux got off to a bumpy start, having launched just before the pandemic in January 2020. Given the slow reopening of tourism in Asia, it’s yet to reach profitability, though its new US route helps meet the newly surging demand for trans-Pacific travel.

Where Starlux has so far excelled is its luxury service and design. Its first A350-900, designed in collaboration with BMW Designworks, is outfitted with both first- and business-class cabins, including private suites that are done up in a rich copper, black and ivory colour scheme with textured leather and moody purple lighting. And when operations were rocked by a domino effect of delays last week, Starlux Chairman KW Chang personally showed up to apologise to passengers at Tokyo’s Narita airport.

The airline’s network currently connects 16 Asian cities, though US travellers will have to connect to most of them via the main hub in Taipei. By Christmas, the company plans to add service in San Francisco, with other US cities to follow as it receives additional aircraft. But if you have a chance to get on one of its planes, you’ll find a roomier-than-usual experience in every cabin–along with beautiful attention to detail. BLOOMBERG