EVA Air poised for Southeast Asia-North America gains as SIA codeshare and US network expand

Taiwan's EVA Air is looking to bolster transit traffic from Southeast Asia to help support further growth in the North American market. A newly expanded codeshare agreement with Singapore Airlines (SIA) covering all six of EVA's North American routes along with a significant expansion of its trans-Pacific operation should generate an increase in the Taiwanese carrier's share of the highly competitive Southeast Asia-North America market.

EVA is planning to increase capacity to North America by 15% in 2015 at it takes four additional 777-300ERs. Similar growth is expected in 2016.

Expansion of EVA's Southeast Asian operation is not expected as the airline is focusing regional growth on the mainland China and Japanese markets. But EVA needs a change in its traffic mix on Southeast Asian routes to include more connecting passengers as competition in the local Taiwan-Southeast Asia market intensifies following the launch of Taiwan's first LCCs, although they are for now small.