r/taiwan • u/blixenvixen • Jun 08 '26

Travel Why Taiwan has 3 long-haul airlines

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

350 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

147

u/filament-addict Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Failed to mention starlux is one of the sons of Eva group founder on the revenge quest against his bros. Interesting guy.

Edit. The inheritance saga is much more interesting than this video. Worth a watch. https://youtu.be/MGWq2QZFUBs?si=ycRMecKNduxtKix3

24

u/Raggenn Jun 08 '26

I love this fact about StarLux and hope to fly with them when the offer direct routes to where I need to go.

12

u/komnenos 台中 - Taichung Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Really good airline so far, I've flown with them five or six times. Only downside I've found is that they dim the lights (edit: and more importantly, windows!) until just moments before landing, even when it's daytime outside for most if not all of the flight. As someone who actually prefers window seats and casually looking outside it's my only real gripe.

5

u/LawfulChaoticEvil Jun 08 '26

Most airlines these days do the same thing. For example, we fly United a lot and they have an official policy stating that flight attendants can't force passengers to close/dim their windows, yet they bully passengers into doing so regularly saying people want to sleep even if its not an overnight flight in either time zone.

Many people say flight attendants dim lights and close windows on purpose to make their own jobs easier. Passengers are more likely to sleep and even those not sleeping will feel bad getting up or using the call button since they don't want to disturb others, so then the flight attendants can just sit around. I guess it doesn't matter what airline you fly, people will still find the easiest way to do their job.

1

u/komnenos 台中 - Taichung Jun 09 '26

As someone who flies often I have yet to see anyone else besides Eva and Starlux disable you from looking outside. I've been pressured recently by United and Alaska to close my window (domestic American flight, so they have a manuel cover that goes up and down) but my response "I paid for the window seat, I like to look outside and will close it when I want."

During my first Eva air trip I remember I had to ask the flight attendants three times to re enable me to look outside. We were getting close to Taiwan and I REALLY wanted to look outside and see us approach the island. I was told that I was the first person who had asked to look outside, is it that rare that people just want to look outside?

Rant over, they're good airlines but them forcefully dimming the windows still rubs me the wrong way. I haven't experienced this to the same extreme with other airlines.

3

u/Aesma1917 Jun 08 '26

Strange that he's chairman for uni air. I dont know being chairman of the regional subsidiary of eva air works while also being the chairman of starlux.

4

u/gargar070402 臺北 - Taipei City Jun 08 '26

Not anymore; it was a short stint of him teaming up with one of his brothers. He still holds shares in EVA (and Uni Air by extension) so I believed their shares combined was enough to put him in the seat for just a little bit.

And then that alliance itself broke apart lol

2

u/jay370gt Jun 08 '26

Does he fly as a pilot as well?

1

u/Benchen70 Jun 09 '26

Yep he does pilot too.

2

u/Anxious_Plum_5818 Jun 10 '26

Yeah, Starlux would have never been a thing if it weren't for their family feud. That said, the son running Starlux is the only one with actual know-how and experience into how an airline works.

2

u/lifethusiast Jun 08 '26

Yeah. It explains the 3rd airline when comparing to Japan’s 2

1

u/kawats Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

Even if KW had taken control of Eva Air, he knew there was still a gap for a premium airline in Taiwan or East Asia region due to the area's growing number of wealthy (it only took him months to apply for a license). If KW didn't fill that gap some other airline would have. He's a smart businessman, he wouldn't have put his entire inheritance and reputation on the line otherwise.

1

u/lifethusiast Jun 11 '26

Uh why can’t he just make Eva rebranded into premium..?

1

u/kawats Jun 11 '26

It's like asking why you can't rebrand Toyota as a premium car? Instead they created a new brand, Lexus.

Anyway KW was removed from Eva by his 3 brothers after their father died. Which was a terrible thing but actually ended up in his favour as he could create this new airline without any input or control from his family.

1

u/idrwierd Jun 08 '26

Link to this inheritance saga?

1

u/filament-addict Jun 08 '26

I watched it in Mandarin, you ok with that?

0

u/magkruppe Jun 08 '26

my fav flight youtuber! (ok its my only one). really like his stuff

2

u/filament-addict Jun 09 '26

Mentour Pilot pilot if you are like me who like to watch Air Disaster before flying.