There’s some unfortunate news for many of our readers eager to try out the new Starlux Airbus A350 cabin products, with confirmation that the airline is launching three intra-Asia services with the new aircraft from this week, but is sadly skipping Singapore from that list for the time being.
Good news though is that if you are really keen to give these products and the airline’s renowned high service levels a try on the A350, you will be able to do so on the carrier’s Bangkok, Macau and Tokyo routes from as early as Friday this week.
These services come ahead of Starlux’s inaugural long-haul route from Taipei to Los Angeles using the A350s, which will include the ability to book the First Class cabin, from late April 2023.
Meanwhile these intra-Asia routes of up to four hours could be a good opportunity to try out the carrier’s new A350 Business Class and Premium Economy cabins, to check if they live up to your long-haul expectations.
Starlux Airbus A350 routes
Unlike the initial rollout of Starlux’s Airbus A330neo aircraft, Singapore is not on the list of inaugural Airbus A350 routes, with the type instead being deployed to and from Taipei as follows:
- Bangkok (BKK): 20th January 2023 to 25th March 2023
- Macau (MFM): 20th January 2023 to 31st May 2023
- Tokyo (NRT): 1st March 2023 to 31st May 2023
Here’s how the schedules look for these A350 flights.
Bangkok
20th Jan – 28th Feb 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 |
JX741 A350 |
||||||||
| TPE 08:10 |
BKK 11:00 |
||||||||
|
JX745 A350 |
||||||||
| TPE 14:45 |
BKK 17:45 |
||||||||
|
JX742 A350 |
||||||||
| BKK 12:10 |
TPE 16:40 |
||||||||
|
JX746 A350 |
||||||||
| BKK 18:55 |
TPE 23:25 |
||||||||
Bangkok
1st Mar – 25th Mar 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
JX745 A350 |
||||||||
| TPE 14:45 |
BKK 17:45 |
||||||||
|
JX746 A350 |
||||||||
| BKK 18:55 |
TPE 23:25 |
||||||||
Bangkok sees twice daily Starlux A350 flights from 20th January 2023 through to the end of February 2023, which is great since that’s the route many of our readers will likely be targeting to try out these new cabins on the four-hour flights to or from Taiwan.
Bangkok A350 service drops to once daily for the first 25 days of March, before being withdrawn altogether. Any Starlux flights not listed above on the Bangkok route are served by the A330-900neo, not the A350.
Macau
20th Jan – 31st May 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
JX205 A350 |
||||||||
| TPE 18:00 |
MFM 19:55 |
||||||||
|
JX206 A350 |
||||||||
| MFM 21:05 |
TPE 22:45 |
||||||||
Again, do note that any other Starlux flights to and from Macau during this period are not operated by the A350, but the A321neo in this case.
Tokyo
1st Mar – 31st May 2023
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
JX800 A350 |
||||||||
| TPE 08:30 |
NRT 12:30 |
||||||||
|
JX801 A350 |
||||||||
| NRT 13:40 |
TPE 16:45 |
||||||||
For the Tokyo route, Starlux flights not listed above during this period are operated by the A330-900neo.
Starlux Singapore flights (JX731/732) will continue to be operated by the Airbus A330-900neo, offering the carrier’s regional wide-body Safran Skylounge Core Business Class seats.
First Class won’t be available
One of the big selling points of the new Starlux A350s is the inclusion of a four-seat single-row First Class cabin, with 60-inch-high closing doors for privacy, a wardrobe to store your belongings, and a huge 32-inch 4K in-flight entertainment screen.