China Airlines and Others Share Latest Information in Seminar for Travel Agencies

China Airlines, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, and the Taiwan Tourism Association held a seminar in Tokyo targeting travel agencies.

The seminar aimed to generate travel demand to Taiwan for the recovering Japanese market, affected by events such as the earthquake in Hualien in April and the depreciation of the yen, by sharing the latest information.

China Airlines is operating relatively young Airbus A330-300 aircraft on the Tokyo/Haneda to Taipei/Songshan route and has recently introduced the new Airbus A321neo on the Tokyo/Narita to Taipei/Taoyuan route. Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 787-10 aircraft, which will become the main equipment on the Japan routes, are scheduled to enter service in the fiscal year 2025.

Usage of the Tokyo routes shows that departures from Japan to Haneda are 4:6, whereas for Narita, it is 1.5:8.5. Flight CI107 from Tokyo/Narita, departing in the morning, operates three round trips a week, indicating that recovery of demand from Japan is necessary for daily operations.

In-flight meals include business class dishes from Dondonan Taipei and desserts in collaboration with Le Ruban, a popular patisserie in Taipei. Economy class offers unique bread varieties supervised by Taiwan’s top chefs and YOSHI Bakery, owned by Chen Yaoxun, who trained in Japan and has been awarded globally. Over 50 Narita-based cabin attendants, who are committed to providing services familiar to Japanese passengers, are part of the team.

Construction of the third terminal at Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport is underway, with a partial opening connecting to Terminal 2’s D Concourse planned for 2025 and full operation expected between 2026 and 2027, although construction is behind schedule. Three companies, including China Airlines, will use it.

The code-share cooperation on domestic routes in Japan with Japan Airlines (JAL) expanded to 26 routes and 602 weekly flights in February this year. In June, Narita Airport introduced automated baggage drop machines.

Group bookings can accommodate up to 240 individuals for school trips, with open-jaw options available on Tokyo routes, particularly offering cost-effective options for first morning flights from Tokyo and afternoon flights from Taipei. Additionally, the corporate reward program offers various perks such as seat upgrades and complimentary tickets based on bi-annual airline ticket expenditures, benefiting not only corporations but also travel agencies. Passengers can also earn personal miles.

The winter schedule includes services to 11 airports across 10 cities nationwide in Japan. Between the Tokyo metropolitan area and Taiwan, there are 24 round trips a week on the Tokyo/Narita to Taipei/Taoyuan route, two round trips a day on the Tokyo/Haneda to Taipei/Songshan route, and 10 round trips a week on the Tokyo/Narita to Kaohsiung route. Suspended routes will be resumed gradually with the increase in demand and receipt of new aircraft.

Although the number of Japanese visitors to Taiwan was progressing at 70% of the 2019 figures, it slowed due to the Hualien earthquake. From January to May, the recovery rate was 64%, reaching nearly 80% in August. In 2023, it was 43%. Meanwhile, the number of visitors from Taiwan to Japan remains 4.6 times higher than that of Japanese visitors to Taiwan, with over half of the Japanese visitors being over the age of 40, showing a higher tendency of male travelers.