Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) is not a major European hub. It has its fair share of regional connectivity, but when it comes to long-haul, its three routes to the US are seasonal for summer tourists, and its three routes to East Asia operate less than daily. Yet fast-growing Taiwanese carrier Starlux Airlines has chosen the capital of Czechia as its first European destination for a new route that will launch later this year.

It’s a somewhat surprising choice, given that the carrier has aspirations to join oneworld, making London Heathrow Airport a seemingly better fit. But the airline has provided some sound reasons for its choice, as well as indicating that more European routes are on the way.

The Details Of The New Route

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Starlux began teasing the new route, which will fly from its base at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), on its website earlier today with a countdown to when tickets would be available to purchase. The PRG newsroom later confirmed the details with a press release. The new route will be launching from August 1, initially operating three times a week, and then increasing to four times weekly from October. The planned flight schedule was also shared:

The TPE-PRG route will be flown with the airline’s Airbus A350-900 fleet, which has an average age of just two years, contributing to Starlux being the airline with the youngest fleet in the world. The 306-seat A350-900s feature the Airbus “New Production Standard”, which includes wider cabins and Gentex electro-dimmable windows in addition to a number of performance improvements. The cabin design, dubbed “Glisten”, was developed in partnership with BMW Designworks.

The Starlux A350s stand out from rivals for having a four-class layout, with the ten -900s featuring the following:

• First Class: One row of four suites in a 1-2-1 configuration, each with a privacy door and screened by a 60″ high partition, with each suite featuring a personal wardrobe. Each seat has a 23″ width, 83″ row pitch, and converts into a fully-flat bed.
• Business Class: 26 Collins Aerospace Elements suites modified to a BMW Designworks design, arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, each with a privacy door and screened by a 48.5″ high partition. Each seat has a 21″ width, 44″ row pitch, and converts into a fully-flat bed.
• Premium Economy: 36 Recaro PL3530 seats arranged in a 2-4-2 configuration, featuring an adjustable foot/leg rest, and adjustable headrest. Each seat has an 18.7″ width, 40″ row pitch, and an 8″ recline.
• Economy: 240 Recaro CL3710 seats arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration. Each seat has an 18″ width, 31″ row pitch, and an 5″ recline.

Starlux will compete with fellow-Taiwanese carrier China Airlines on the route, with the latter having flown to Prague up to three times weekly since 2023, also using an A350.

But Why Is Prague The First European Destination?

Credit: Starlux Airlines

Prague is an interesting choice for Starlux’s first European destination. But it’s not unprecedented for new carriers in East Asia to start out in smaller European markets. For example, Trinity Airlines (formerly T’Way Air) debuted in the European market in 2024 with its first route from Seoul to Zagreb in Croatia. For its part, Starlux has confirmed that the choice of Prague is primarily because of the city’s strategic business value, central location, and high demand from Taiwanese travelers.

Starlux Airlines CEO Glenn Chai confirmed that the combination of both business and leisure travel was what convinced the airline to pick the Czech capital:

“Prague is a long-favored destination for Taiwanese travelers, and growing semiconductor industry ties are expected to further drive demand between Taiwan and Czechia. And wWith Taiwan serving as a convenient hub in Asia, our extensive Asian network will provide seamless connections to major cities across the region.”

Chai and his colleagues are clearly betting on a continued rebound in tourism numbers from Taiwan to Czechia. Back in 2019, nearly 200,000 people visited the Central European nation from Taiwan. But as of last year, those numbers had not yet bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, reaching less than 150,000. If Starlux can tap into returning demand, or even help drive that demand up through greater flight availability, then this is potentially a smaller but very lucrative market for the Taiwanese carrier.

Related

Airbus Delivers 1st A350-1000 To STARLUX Airlines

The first of its kind for the airline and Taiwan.

Starlux’s Continued Expansion

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Starlux has also indicated that this is the first of two new European routes that it expects to launch this year. The second is widely anticipated to be Milan Malpensa Airport. The route is currently operated daily by EVA Air with a Boeing 787-9 service.

This new route is also just the latest expansion for the “unluckiest airline ever”, which launched in January 2020 and then had to suspend all operations just two months later due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, it has grown rapidly since, expanding its fleet of Airbus narrowbodies and widebodies to the current 30 in operation, with a further 14 new aircraft expected to be added this year.

Most notably, Starlux received the first aircraft from its order of 18 Airbus A350-1000s last month, which is currently being utilized on the carrier’s trunk route to Tokyo Narita Airport. With five more set to arrive this year, Starlux is expected to use the type to initiate new routes to the US. It currently flies to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ontario and Phoenix, but the longer-range -1000 will allow it to leverage its interline partnership with American Airlines by flying to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, or even travel as far as New York or Chicago.