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Taiwan's First Local Budget Flyer V Air Plans Maiden Flight to Bangkok in Nov. or Dec.

2014/09/26 | By Judy Li

V Air, fully-owned by Taiwan-based TransAsia Airways to be Taiwan's first locally-established low-cost airline, targets Bangkok, Thailand for its maiden flight to take off in either November or December.

Tigerair Taiwan, another budget carrier and joint venture between Taiwan's China Airlines and Tiger Airways Pte of Singapore, is slated to fly its inaugural route on September 26, with V Air to take off in the budget flight market about two months later.

V Air and Tigerair Taiwan are two newcomers in Taiwan's crowded low-cost segment that is served by 10 carriers: Jet Star, Scoot, Cebu Pacific, T'way Air, Sastar Jet, Jin Air, AirAsia, Peach, Spring Airlines, and Juneyao Airlines.

To better compete in this low-cost segment, V Air will reportedly offer very low fares and also traditional Taiwanese meals onboard, including fried pumpkin rice noodle, spareribs rice, seasoned soybean pork rice etc., as well as Mandarin- and Taiwanese-speaking flight attendants.

The airline will fly to Ching Mai in northern Thailand as its second  destination, then more routes to Japan and South Korea in Q1, 2015.

V Air will finish painting its first plane, A320, in early October and plans to add next year four more A320s to its fleet, as well as possibly two to three more planes annually if all goes well. (JL)