China Airlines has added the US to its list of countries operated by its new A350, with the aircraft now being operated on the Taiwanese carrier’s Taipei-San Francisco route.
The airline had previously deployed the aircraft on its long-haul routes to Europe, notably Amsterdam, Vienna and Rome, however as of yesterday (May 14) the aircraft is now flying the carrier’s daily CI004/CI003 flights. China Airlines’ next long-haul route to see the A350 will be Taipei-Vancouver starting August, followed by Sydney in December.
The A350 is looking as though it will have a comprehensive run on China Airlines’ route between Taipei and San Francisco, however. In addition to the daily CI004/CI003 flights, an extra twice-weekly service is also being launched. Flying on Thursday and Sunday, these CI016/CI015 flights will also be operated by the A350, and will be increased to a four-times-weekly service starting June 28 when it begins also flying the route on Wednesday and Friday.
China Airlines received its first A350 back in September last year, and currently has 14 of the aircraft on order with 10 expected to be delivered by the end of 2017. The carrier configures its A350s with three classes, offering 32 Premium Business, 31 premium economy and 243 economy class seats.
A review of China Airlines’ A350 business class on its Taipei-Hong Kong route is available here.
Details of the Taipei (TPE)-San Francisco (SFO) route are as follows (all times local):
| Flight No. | From | To | Departs | Arrives | Days |
| CI004 | TPE | SFO | 2335 | 2000 | Daily |
| CI003 | SFO | TPE | 0140 | 0600+1 |
| Flight No. | From | To | Departs | Arrives | Days |
| CI016 | TPE | SFO | 1800 | 1425 | Thu, Sun |
| *Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun | |||||
| CI015 | SFO | TPE | 1650 | 2110+1 | Thu, Sun |
| *Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun |
*Starting June 28, 2017
