Taiwan’s EVA Air to add Chicago and Houston passenger service to growing North American network

EVA Air is moving ahead with introducing service from its Taipei hub to Chicago and Houston, which it has been considering for over a year, along with Atlanta and Dallas. Noticeably EVA Air selected hubs of Star Alliance partner United Airlines rather than enter Delta's fortress in Atlanta or American's hub in Dallas, which has seen a growing number of Asian flights, whereas Houston is relatively quieter.

The additions continue EVA's growth in North America, which accounts for about half of its ASKs. EVA has increased its presence in North America with additional 777-300ERs, growing its 777 fleet from zero in 2004 to 18 in Oct-2014, this figure expected to grow to 32 in 2017, indicating there is still large growth to come. 777s now comprise about one-third of EVA's passenger fleet.

EVA is benefitting from its hub status between North America and greater Asia, but also from larger US-Taiwan traffic flows since the US in Oct-2012 added Taiwan to its visa waiver programme, which helped facilitate a 33% increase in Taiwanese visitors in 2013. Taiwanese visitors for the year to Jul-2014 are up 7%.