Starlux: Taiwanese airline company plans to launch non-stop Phoenix-Taipei flights
The Brief
Taiwan's Starlux Airlines intends to operate non-stop flights from Phoenix to Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.
The route is scheduled to be launched in early 2026, pending government approval.
This marks the first time there have been direct flights between Sky Harbor and Asia since the early 1990s.
PHOENIX - Officials with the City of Phoenix announced that an airline company could soon offer flights between Sky Harbor and Asia.
What we know
Per a statement released on May 20, Starlux Airlines intends to begin non-stop flights between Sky Harbor and Taoyuan Airport.
According to Starlux's website, plans to launch the company were announced in 2016, and the company received its air operator certificate and air route certificate from Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration in December 2019. The company flew its inaugural flights in January 2020.
Per a statement Starlux released on Feb. 11, 2025, the airline has routes from Asia to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, with a route to Ontario, Calif. scheduled to launch on June 2.
What's next
"The service, pending final government approvals, would begin early next year, with three to four flights a week," read a portion of the statement released by the City of Phoenix. "Service will initially begin with an A350-900 aircraft that has 306 seats. Tickets will go on sale once government approval is formalized."
Dig deeper
Taoyuan Airport is located in Taipei, which is the capital city of Taiwan. The Asian country is also known as the Republic of China.
According to an unrelated Associated Press report published on April 18, Taiwan is a self-governed island with a democratic form of government, despite claims by the People's Republic of China that Taiwan is its territory, to be retaken by force if necessary.
The backstory
While city officials are calling this the "first nonstop air service to Asia for Phoenix and Arizona," this is not the first time there have been services between Phoenix and Asia.
According to a brief statement from Sky Harbor Airport, America West Alines used to operate non-stop flights between Phoenix and Honolulu, and between Honolulu and Nagoya, Japan.
Per a post the airport made on its X account in 2024, the routes were discontinued in the 1990s.
America West would merge with US Airways in 2005, and US Airways would go on to merge with American Airlines in 2013.
Dig deeper
Per Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport's website, nonstop service is currently offered to dozens of destinations outside the United States. They include:
Calgary, Canada
Cancún, Mexico
Culiacán, Mexico
Edmonton, Canada
Guadalajara, Mexico
Hermosillo, Mexico
Kelowna, Canada
London (Heathrow Airport), United Kingdom
Loreto, Mexico
Manzanillo, Mexico
Mazatlán, Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
Monterrey, Mexico
Montreal, Canada
Paris (Charles de Gaulle Airport), France
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Regina, Canada
San José del Cabo, Mexico
Saskatoon, Canada
Tijuana, Mexico
Toronto, Canada
Vancouver, Canada,
Winnipeg, Canada
Zijuatanejo/Ixtapa, Mexico
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Wire
2 hours ago
- Business Wire
Elucidata and Sapien Biosciences Announce Strategic Partnership to Transform Biobank Assets into high quality AI Products
SAN FRANCISCO & HYDERABAD, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elucidata, a leader in data-centric AI for drug discovery and translational research, and Sapien Biosciences, India's first and largest commercial biobank with 300,000+ patient samples founded in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, today announced a strategic partnership to convert Sapien's extensive biobank assets into AI-ready, multimodal data products for use in drug and diagnostic development. Through this collaboration, Sapien will harness Elucidata's platform to integrate, standardize, and enrich its vast repository of biospecimens and curated clinical data, making them accessible for predictive modeling, synthetic data generation, and advanced genomics research. The partnership reflects a shared focus on turning real-world patient data into high-value actionable insights that drive precision medicine and improve outcomes worldwide. With access to over 300,000 patient samples across oncology, cardiology, autoimmune, inflammation, neurology, and other diseases, Sapien operates at a scale matched by few biobanks worldwide. This includes more than 85,000 cancer patients, increasingly paired with digitized histopathology images, genomic profiles, and structured longitudinal clinical data, making it one of the top 10 biobanks globally and the largest integrated resource for Asian patient data. 'At Sapien, we believe that deeply characterized patient data especially from underrepresented populations like those in India can catalyze more inclusive and effective diagnostics and therapies worldwide,' said Dr. Jugnu Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Sapien Biosciences. 'This partnership with Elucidata enables us to convert our rich biological and clinical datasets into interoperable, AI-ready formats, unlocking their potential for translational research, patient stratification, and precision drug development.' The first phase of the collaboration will focus on building AI models that infer genomic and transcriptomic insights from digital pathology images. By using NGS-annotated slides from Sapien's cancer biobank, the project will enable the generation of synthetic multi-modal datasets essential for next-generation diagnostic tools and tissue-sparing research strategies. This is particularly valuable for rare cancers and limited biopsy specimens. 'Sapien's scale, sample quality, and data depth make it a critical partner in our mission to democratize access to high quality, AI-ready biomedical data,' said Dr. Abhishek Jha, CEO and Co-founder of Elucidata. 'By applying our Polly platform to Sapien's datasets, we can bridge the gap between fragmented sample collections and next-gen AI models that accelerate target discovery and biomarker validation.' In addition to oncology, the partnership will explore multi-disease use cases across Sapien's biobank, including cardiovascular, autoimmune, and neurological disorders, building synthetic clinicogenomic datasets that support pharma R&D and companion diagnostic development. 'This partnership between Elucidata and Sapien Biosciences brings together Sapien's extensive, high-quality biobank resources and Elucidata's expertise in AI-powered data integration. By making rich biospecimens and clinical datasets AI-ready, this collaboration has the potential to accelerate global innovation and help reduce the complexity of human biology for research and patient care,' said Dr. Navjot Singh, advisor of and healthcare leader with 22 years of expertise in strategy, technology, and innovation, most recently as a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. Elucidata recently ranked 7th in the Broad Institute's Autoimmune Disease Machine Learning Challenge and recently won the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Data Commons AI Data Readiness Challenge, highlighting its leadership in data-centric AI for life sciences. About Elucidata Elucidata is a data-first AI company that accelerates life sciences R&D by converting fragmented biomedical datasets into harmonized, AI-ready assets. Its proprietary Polly platform integrates EHRs, genomics, imaging, and clinical trial data for seamless downstream analysis and model development. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices across the U.S. and India, Elucidata supports over 70 pharma and diagnostics clients, and has contributed to 16 drug programs progressing toward FDA approvals. Recognized by the National Cancer Institute and Fast Company for its innovation in biotech, Elucidata is enabling a new era of data-driven discovery. Visit for more information. About Sapien Biosciences Founded in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, Sapien Biosciences is India's premier multi-disease biobank and a leader in Indian real-world evidence (RWE) for personalized medicine. With access to more than 300,000 patients' samples including 2 million pathology samples, Sapien offers FFPE tissues, blood, and liquid biopsy samples along with annotated histopathology slides and longitudinal clinical data. Its resources support a broad range of applications from AI/ML modeling and multi-omics research to drug screening in patient tumor-derived cells and biomarker discovery. Sapien has published over 10 peer-reviewed studies using Indian patient data and collaborates with leading diagnostic and pharma companies to reduce the representation gap in global omics datasets. Learn more at
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Analysis: New South Korean President Lee Jae-mying expected to enact pro-labor bills
June 4 (UPI) -- During May's televised debate ahead of the South Korean presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung was asked about the pro-labor "Yellow Envelope Act." Lee, who was elected as the country's 21st state head Tuesday, replied positively about the bill, which is designed to limit employers' damage claims against workers involved in strikes. "The Yellow Envelope Act reflects the Supreme Court's verdicts and is aligned with the International Labor Organization standards. Its legislation is something that should be done obviously," he said. Observers point out that the response amply demonstrates what may lie ahead for Asia's fourth-largest economy under Lee's leadership during the next five years. "President Lee is likely to immediately pursue labor-friendly legislation like the Yellow Envelope Act. In fact, the National Assembly will convene Thursday at the request of the Democratic Party," political commentator Choi Soo-young told UPI. "This means that the Yellow Envelope Act can be passed a day after Lee's inauguration. Under his stewardship, many similar bills are likely to be introduced," he predicted. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority of seats in the country's unicameral parliament, headed the passage of the Yellow Envelope Act twice in 2023 and 2024. Back then, however, former President Yoon Suk-yeol vetoed it as the country's major business associations expressed concerns that the bill might embolden already militant trade unions. Even the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea echoed such a sentiment. In addition to launching labor-friendly policies, experts expected that the new administration would channel funds in a bid to boost the sluggish economy in the short term. "The South Korean economy is feared to grow below the potential growth rate this year due to the lack of demand. The new government will try to deal with this through increased public spending," Sogang University economics professor Kim Young-ick said in a phone interview. "For example, President Lee is projected to proactively implement the local currency system, even if it means incurring a fiscal deficit," Kim said. President Lee has expressed his commitment to promoting local currencies, or vouchers issued by regional governments that are valid only within designated areas, to revitalize the economy. The Bank of Korea nearly halved the country's 2025 growth forecast from 1.5% to 0.8% on Thursday, falling short of its potential growth rate estimated to be around 2%. Over the past three decades, the Korean economy has failed to achieve 1% annual growth only three times: in 1997 amid the Asian financial crisis, in 2009 because of the global financial turmoil, and in 2020 during the virus pandemic. "As a mid- to longer-term goal, President Lee is projected to jack up the country's growth potential by underpinning productivity. One effective approach would be to fully take advantage of artificial intelligence-powered systems," Kim said. Lee Phil-sang, an adviser at Aju Research Institute of Corporate Management and former Seoul National University economics professor, worried that President Lee would come up with populist policies at the expense of the country's fiscal health. "Rather than trying to improve South Korea's economic fundamentals through such measures as deregulation, President Lee is feared to just increase government spending," Lee said. "Such stimulus policies may have a short-term effect. But it would not make a big difference in the long run. Instead, such an approach may result in a steep rise in public debt. I am concerned that President Lee appears indifferent to rising debt," he said. During last month's election campaign, President Lee said that the government should not overly worry about sovereign debt. "There are people saying ignorant things like that the country must never go into debt because the national debt has exceeded $730 billion," he said. "But if the government doesn't spend money during times like this, then when will it ever?" he asked. "Compared to our annual gross domestic product, the government debt is quite low at less than 50%." President Lee also has been a prominent advocate of universal basic income, which is designed to provide all citizens with a guaranteed minimum level of income. During the 2022 election campaign, when former President Yoon defeated then-candidate Lee, the latter proposed an annual payment of around $180 per person with the five-year goal of raising it to $730. At the time, the idea also faced criticisms of its financial feasibility. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Analysis: New South Korean President Lee Jae-mying expected to enact pro-labor bills
June 4 (UPI) -- During May's televised debate ahead of the South Korean presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung was asked about the pro-labor "Yellow Envelope Act." Lee, who was elected as the country's 21st state head Tuesday, replied positively about the bill, which is designed to limit employers' damage claims against workers involved in strikes. "The Yellow Envelope Act reflects the Supreme Court's verdicts and is aligned with the International Labor Organization standards. Its legislation is something that should be done obviously," he said. Observers point out that the response amply demonstrates what may lie ahead for Asia's fourth-largest economy under Lee's leadership during the next five years. "President Lee is likely to immediately pursue labor-friendly legislation like the Yellow Envelope Act. In fact, the National Assembly will convene Thursday at the request of the Democratic Party," political commentator Choi Soo-young told UPI. "This means that the Yellow Envelope Act can be passed a day after Lee's inauguration. Under his stewardship, many similar bills are likely to be introduced," he predicted. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority of seats in the country's unicameral parliament, headed the passage of the Yellow Envelope Act twice in 2023 and 2024. Back then, however, former President Yoon Suk-yeol vetoed it as the country's major business associations expressed concerns that the bill might embolden already militant trade unions. Even the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea echoed such a sentiment. In addition to launching labor-friendly policies, experts expected that the new administration would channel funds in a bid to boost the sluggish economy in the short term. "The South Korean economy is feared to grow below the potential growth rate this year due to the lack of demand. The new government will try to deal with this through increased public spending," Sogang University economics professor Kim Young-ick said in a phone interview. "For example, President Lee is projected to proactively implement the local currency system, even if it means incurring a fiscal deficit," Kim said. President Lee has expressed his commitment to promoting local currencies, or vouchers issued by regional governments that are valid only within designated areas, to revitalize the economy. The Bank of Korea nearly halved the country's 2025 growth forecast from 1.5% to 0.8% on Thursday, falling short of its potential growth rate estimated to be around 2%. Over the past three decades, the Korean economy has failed to achieve 1% annual growth only three times: in 1997 amid the Asian financial crisis, in 2009 because of the global financial turmoil, and in 2020 during the virus pandemic. "As a mid- to longer-term goal, President Lee is projected to jack up the country's growth potential by underpinning productivity. One effective approach would be to fully take advantage of artificial intelligence-powered systems," Kim said. Lee Phil-sang, an adviser at Aju Research Institute of Corporate Management and former Seoul National University economics professor, worried that President Lee would come up with populist policies at the expense of the country's fiscal health. "Rather than trying to improve South Korea's economic fundamentals through such measures as deregulation, President Lee is feared to just increase government spending," Lee said. "Such stimulus policies may have a short-term effect. But it would not make a big difference in the long run. Instead, such an approach may result in a steep rise in public debt. I am concerned that President Lee appears indifferent to rising debt," he said. During last month's election campaign, President Lee said that the government should not overly worry about sovereign debt. "There are people saying ignorant things like that the country must never go into debt because the national debt has exceeded $730 billion," he said. "But if the government doesn't spend money during times like this, then when will it ever?" he asked. "Compared to our annual gross domestic product, the government debt is quite low at less than 50%." President Lee also has been a prominent advocate of universal basic income, which is designed to provide all citizens with a guaranteed minimum level of income. During the 2022 election campaign, when former President Yoon defeated then-candidate Lee, the latter proposed an annual payment of around $180 per person with the five-year goal of raising it to $730. At the time, the idea also faced criticisms of its financial feasibility.
