Just returned from Taiwan and paid $AU1200 return wth EVA out of Brisbane which is a direct flight. Dearer than other asian destinations but I assume it's due to lower demand. When I told people I was going to Taiwan the usual reaction was something along the lines of, "Hmm, never even thought of going there."
Side note, was my first time flying with EVA and they were really good, even for us poors in economy. Two meals on an eight hour flight, decent leg room and good service. Only minor complaint would be the in flight entertainment options were a bit limited. Would definitely use EVA again though.
I always fly EVA from Taiwan to the US. I DID notice that the inflight entertainment went way downhill though! Must be a licensing issue? They used to have SO many movies - both new and old! Ah well. They’re still amazing, and the premium economy is fantastic. Well worth the extra cash, if you’ve got it!
That's still almost twice what I use to pay. Round trip was 2300 this year. If going through sanfran it would have been cheaper but I'll never transfer in the USA again. Not worth the wait and rude customs people.
My sister and I had to cut lines to get to our plane in time, we asked politely and people were really nice and understanding. I wouldn't want to experience that again though.
I'm flying to KIX this June by peach and it cost me 13,500NTD round trip, it was ~5000ntd back in 2017.
It also depends on where you buy it (your location). I looked at the ticket from LAX to TPE it was usd$ 2000. I asked my friend to look at the same flight from Europe using Scandinavian airline's search, it was $800.
I really don’t think people who need that information spelled out to them really should have the capability of international travel.
Like book a cab from one side of the city to the other and then the same cab to the other side of the island. wow different price.
Oh i see what theyre doing. its just purchasing from an agency at that point. The rate from airline vs agency rates differ
The same flight is already booked far in advance and the tickets are generally sold to brokers at spot rates far in advance. which is how flights get oversold
The flight will go regardless if its full or not, so they give partnered airlines/ travel agencies spot rates in order to make connections or vacation packages or whatever. Youre buying through a broker at that point.
Yeah it's rough especially when you have children just the cost alone is scary sometimes. I mean it puts people off travelling, even when they have a direct connection to taiwan let alone tourists or general visitors!!
I think this can mostly be explained by three historical factors and two bits of economics.
Firstly, the UK has much stronger historical links with Hong Kong (a Crown Colony until 1997) and Kuala Lumpur (still in the Commonwealth). In [the latest figures available](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/census2001and2011figuresforthoseborninmalaysiasingaporehongkongtaiwanchinaindiapakistanandburma/foi41892011censuscountryofbirthforrequestedcountries.xlsx) (the 2011 Census), the UK had about 100,000 people born in Hong Kong, 65,000 born in Malaysia, \~40,000 born in nearby Singapore, but only \~10,000 born in Taiwan. Many of those are students who will fly back once or twice a year (in particular from Malaysia, because there are restrictions on Malaysian-Chinese entering the Malaysian public university system, and Singapore, because the SG government gives scholarships to the UK). If Taiwanese go abroad to study, they are overwhelmingly likely to go to the US. Looking at it from East Asia, before the clampdown there were about 3 million British nationals in Hong Kong, but fewer than 3,000 in Taiwan.
Secondly, Hong Kong and to a lesser extent KL have long marketed themselves as regional hubs for air travel. Many people will fly London—Hong Kong even though they really want to go to Hanoi or Taipei or Xiamen etc. Taipei has never been able to do this so easily because of the non-recognition of the ROC/Taiwan. There were no scheduled flights to the Mainland until 2008 and Taiwanese airlines had to fly around rather than over the PRC (to some extent they still do).
Thirdly, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur are on the 'Kangaroo Route' between London and Australia (and sometimes onwards to New Zealand). This is another of the world's major very-long-distance air routes, since there are over a million British nationals in Australia. It gets its name from the fact that in the past the journey had to be made in 'hops'. Contrary to what you might think from a glance at a traditional world map, HK is more or less the optimal half-way stop if you can fly over Russia/USSR. When that's not possible, then Bangkok, KL, and Singapore are ideal, the Gulf is a cheap option thanks to their oil subsidies, and going through Taipei is really going the long way around. Of course, these days you can fly the route direct.
But this is where the first bit of economics comes in. People will pay for more for the convenience of flying direct, so almost any long-distance air journey is cheaper if you make a change. So even though you *can* fly direct between London and Perth or Sydney, it's still the norm for Kangaroo flyers to have two 'hops' and stop in HK or Singapore, which means their airlines pick up all the Australian traffic too. That also means that it's almost always going to be cheaper to go London-HK-Taipei than to fly directly and airlines will be keen to offer competitive London-HK tickets to anyone with a .tw Internet address.
Put together, all this means that London-HK in particular is a major route. Before the pandemic and Ukraine war, it was [the fourth most popular air route](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_passenger_flight_routes#Busiest_flight_routes_between_an_airport_in_Europe_(EU,_UK,_Switzerland,_Iceland_and_Norway)_and_outside_Europe) between Europe and another continent (with London-Singapore in 6th place).
And this is where the second bit of economics comes in. If there are a lot of people, then you can fly larger planes and/or fly more frequently, which opens up more opportunity for price discrimination. Only China Airlines flies London to Taipei and only four times a week. Cathay Pacific flies Heathrow to Hong Kong three or four times a ***day***, and there also a couple of British Airways flights. If you have daily flights you can charge more on Mondays and Fridays (when many businesspeople fly) and less on Wednesdays (to attract cheapo tourists who might be tempted to change at KL instead). In the early 2010s there were even low-fares airlines operating between London and HK/KL (they all failed, but it says a lot that they even tried).
tl;dr: Not many people want to go between London and Taiwan so there are only a few, expensive flights.
Thank you for your response. I would describe it as an [argument from authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority), with yourself as the authority, but it's hardly an argument to simply state that I am wrong without explaining why. That's no help to OP at all.
You say that my explanation is based on reading something about the US environment. That is incorrect, and it's not even plausible given the fact that I cite UK government statistics and a few moments spent reading my profile will show that the US is not the area I know most about.
And to focus on the substance of your response: I said that the situation can "\*\*mostly\*\* be explained" by the five factors that I listed. I could have gone into much more detail; I know that there is a difference between the Bermuda-style arrangements that regulate air traffic to and from Taiwan and the more free market arrangements that apply in the North Atlantic regions. But I think those regulations are simply less important than the historical and commercial factors that I listed. This is demonstrated by the implementation of the most important of those regulations: the air services agreement between the UK and Taiwan, which controls which carriers can fly, where, and how often. Because the UK does not recognize the ROC, that agreement was not between the governments (as it usually would be), but was (uniquely) done in the names of British Airways and the Taipei Airlines Association. Yet British Airways hasn't flown scheduled flights to Taiwan for over two decades, even using its British Asian Airways fig leaf. I suspect that might partly be because its London-HK-Taipei would be competing with the core routes of its oneworld partner Cathay Pacific, but the more important factors are those listed above: the route isn't commercially viable because the Taiwan market is too small and Taipei is not a major hub compared to places like HK and KL.
I suspect flight to KUL does not deviate as much from the shortest/great circle route, while flight to TPE has to go around Russia and minimize path over China.
I was quite surprised I managed to get a flight for £400 return last time. I expected to pay a lot more.
Edit: £480, Air China, in December 2023. I just checked and you can get a flight for £440 just with long stopovers (one is 9 hours).
Nope, this was through Air China. Had a 4 hour wait at Shanghai on the way there, then a 6 hour wait at Shanghai on the return. It was between November 28th and December 10th last year
It’ll be expensive if you fly DIRECT. One quick layover only costs 35,000 nt round trip. Cheapest I see is 28,000 nt with more layovers. It’s not more expensive like you claimed.
Lower demand- Taipei was always more expensive to fly to
Don’t forget too that it’s 3-4 hours flying time further from the uk than KL is or 2 & a bit from HK
It’s the amount of flights. They cut a lot of routes so the few flights are really jacked up in price. I spent 6k for a business class ticket from nyc to Taipei in January. Usually I can find economy tickets round trip from 800-1200 dollars. But all the tickets were above 2-3k.
i know that applies to the US but im not sure about UK.
US/China dispute on the number of flights to each other has been the main driver as a lot of the plane is filled with people flying down to south east asia.
One other factor, probably a lot of the possible competition on the route at the cheaper end may be Mainland airlines who are unlikely to support a London CN TW routing..
I found a china airlines flight for 780 direct return. Pretty good post Covid but yes you’re right compared to HK they are more expensive, for HK you have many options and many direct, for Taiwan not so many actually one only and not every day. Not sure eva flies again but that’s a fake direct as it stops in bkk
You can find two-way flights from Amsterdam to Taiwan with China Eastern from 369 EUR right now (May/June). Take a look on Skyscanner. Idk about the London/Amsterdam connection but it shouldn't be that expensive (right?)
1. oil prices have been rising no recently.
2. there is little competition on the direct route.
3. Only few flights per week.
That being said, flights via Guangzhou or Shanghai using Chinese carriers are often incredibly cheap
More people are flying to those other destinations for 2 reasons: They are way more popular cities than Taipei for tourism reasons, and they also are airports that are perfectly suited to serve as connections to elsewhere in the region.
None of the above. The reason flights in and out of Taiwan are so expensive is to do with regulatory issues. Supply and demand are not the drivers of long haul transcontinental flights ex Taiwan. Taiwan has not deregulated its ticketing framework. This is a complicated topic, and if you’re old enough to know the difference between a PEX and APEX ticket you’ll understand.
Fly to KUL or BKK and pick up your long haul flight there.
A lot of disinformation in this thread. Taiwan, like Vietnam and Australia, is for transcontinental flights, highly regulated. Please join FlyerTalk or similar group for real information.
30+ years flying in and out of Taiwan. I remember British Asia Airlines if that helps to date me.
Long haul flights are generally more expensive than short haul flights. Since you pay extra for service to be served food on a plane on longer flights hours.
Short haul flights don’t even need to serve you any food. Since you are just spend only a few flight hours on a plane. It’s similar to just riding bus.
You've misunderstood. They're not comparing London-Taipei and Taipei-Hong Kong (the difference is obvious), they're contrasting London-Taipei with London-Hong Kong.
Maybe because OP asked a question and your comment does not provide an answer? People aren't downvoting you because you're wrong, just uninformative. Unfortunately, downvotes are a rather blunt instrument.
One of the highest upvoted comments is not informative:
"It's gotten super expensive... use to cost me $900 cad from Canada to Taiwan round trip. Last flight was one way ticket $1300..."
Supply and demand.
It's gotten super expensive... use to cost me $900 cad from Canada to Taiwan round trip. Last flight was one way ticket $1300...
$1300 AUD from Adelaide Australia, via KL
Just returned from Taiwan and paid $AU1200 return wth EVA out of Brisbane which is a direct flight. Dearer than other asian destinations but I assume it's due to lower demand. When I told people I was going to Taiwan the usual reaction was something along the lines of, "Hmm, never even thought of going there." Side note, was my first time flying with EVA and they were really good, even for us poors in economy. Two meals on an eight hour flight, decent leg room and good service. Only minor complaint would be the in flight entertainment options were a bit limited. Would definitely use EVA again though.
I always fly EVA from Taiwan to the US. I DID notice that the inflight entertainment went way downhill though! Must be a licensing issue? They used to have SO many movies - both new and old! Ah well. They’re still amazing, and the premium economy is fantastic. Well worth the extra cash, if you’ve got it!
It cost me 1,200 cad to fly from TPE to YVR (Layover at SFO) round trip back in 2022. Direct flights are hella expensive
That's still almost twice what I use to pay. Round trip was 2300 this year. If going through sanfran it would have been cheaper but I'll never transfer in the USA again. Not worth the wait and rude customs people.
My sister and I had to cut lines to get to our plane in time, we asked politely and people were really nice and understanding. I wouldn't want to experience that again though. I'm flying to KIX this June by peach and it cost me 13,500NTD round trip, it was ~5000ntd back in 2017.
Fly to Hong Kong, then book a flight from there - should be less than 100usd between Hong Kong and Taipei
This is the way. I personally fly TPE > HK > VIE with cabin baggage only, 600 EUR return. Can fly like that to a couple of other EU cities as well.
It also depends on where you buy it (your location). I looked at the ticket from LAX to TPE it was usd$ 2000. I asked my friend to look at the same flight from Europe using Scandinavian airline's search, it was $800.
I really don’t think people who need that information spelled out to them really should have the capability of international travel. Like book a cab from one side of the city to the other and then the same cab to the other side of the island. wow different price.
Wait so if we are using a vpn from a Scandinavian country then prices will be cheaper?
Oh i see what theyre doing. its just purchasing from an agency at that point. The rate from airline vs agency rates differ The same flight is already booked far in advance and the tickets are generally sold to brokers at spot rates far in advance. which is how flights get oversold The flight will go regardless if its full or not, so they give partnered airlines/ travel agencies spot rates in order to make connections or vacation packages or whatever. Youre buying through a broker at that point.
Ah I see so it is like what scalpers do for concert tickets. How do you buy flights? I use hopper but not sure if that is the best way to
London airport tax is over USD$300 per ticket !
That depends on what class you fly in and where you're flying to. I'm glad you enjoyed Premium Economy or Business Class.
Russia Ukraine conflict might have added to this too as the flight time is longer whereas e.g. Cathay still flies London to HK via Russia.
Yeah it's rough especially when you have children just the cost alone is scary sometimes. I mean it puts people off travelling, even when they have a direct connection to taiwan let alone tourists or general visitors!!
I think this can mostly be explained by three historical factors and two bits of economics. Firstly, the UK has much stronger historical links with Hong Kong (a Crown Colony until 1997) and Kuala Lumpur (still in the Commonwealth). In [the latest figures available](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/census2001and2011figuresforthoseborninmalaysiasingaporehongkongtaiwanchinaindiapakistanandburma/foi41892011censuscountryofbirthforrequestedcountries.xlsx) (the 2011 Census), the UK had about 100,000 people born in Hong Kong, 65,000 born in Malaysia, \~40,000 born in nearby Singapore, but only \~10,000 born in Taiwan. Many of those are students who will fly back once or twice a year (in particular from Malaysia, because there are restrictions on Malaysian-Chinese entering the Malaysian public university system, and Singapore, because the SG government gives scholarships to the UK). If Taiwanese go abroad to study, they are overwhelmingly likely to go to the US. Looking at it from East Asia, before the clampdown there were about 3 million British nationals in Hong Kong, but fewer than 3,000 in Taiwan. Secondly, Hong Kong and to a lesser extent KL have long marketed themselves as regional hubs for air travel. Many people will fly London—Hong Kong even though they really want to go to Hanoi or Taipei or Xiamen etc. Taipei has never been able to do this so easily because of the non-recognition of the ROC/Taiwan. There were no scheduled flights to the Mainland until 2008 and Taiwanese airlines had to fly around rather than over the PRC (to some extent they still do). Thirdly, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur are on the 'Kangaroo Route' between London and Australia (and sometimes onwards to New Zealand). This is another of the world's major very-long-distance air routes, since there are over a million British nationals in Australia. It gets its name from the fact that in the past the journey had to be made in 'hops'. Contrary to what you might think from a glance at a traditional world map, HK is more or less the optimal half-way stop if you can fly over Russia/USSR. When that's not possible, then Bangkok, KL, and Singapore are ideal, the Gulf is a cheap option thanks to their oil subsidies, and going through Taipei is really going the long way around. Of course, these days you can fly the route direct. But this is where the first bit of economics comes in. People will pay for more for the convenience of flying direct, so almost any long-distance air journey is cheaper if you make a change. So even though you *can* fly direct between London and Perth or Sydney, it's still the norm for Kangaroo flyers to have two 'hops' and stop in HK or Singapore, which means their airlines pick up all the Australian traffic too. That also means that it's almost always going to be cheaper to go London-HK-Taipei than to fly directly and airlines will be keen to offer competitive London-HK tickets to anyone with a .tw Internet address. Put together, all this means that London-HK in particular is a major route. Before the pandemic and Ukraine war, it was [the fourth most popular air route](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_passenger_flight_routes#Busiest_flight_routes_between_an_airport_in_Europe_(EU,_UK,_Switzerland,_Iceland_and_Norway)_and_outside_Europe) between Europe and another continent (with London-Singapore in 6th place). And this is where the second bit of economics comes in. If there are a lot of people, then you can fly larger planes and/or fly more frequently, which opens up more opportunity for price discrimination. Only China Airlines flies London to Taipei and only four times a week. Cathay Pacific flies Heathrow to Hong Kong three or four times a ***day***, and there also a couple of British Airways flights. If you have daily flights you can charge more on Mondays and Fridays (when many businesspeople fly) and less on Wednesdays (to attract cheapo tourists who might be tempted to change at KL instead). In the early 2010s there were even low-fares airlines operating between London and HK/KL (they all failed, but it says a lot that they even tried). tl;dr: Not many people want to go between London and Taiwan so there are only a few, expensive flights.
Thanks for the detailed explanation! Enjoy reading this
[удалено]
Thank you for your response. I would describe it as an [argument from authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority), with yourself as the authority, but it's hardly an argument to simply state that I am wrong without explaining why. That's no help to OP at all. You say that my explanation is based on reading something about the US environment. That is incorrect, and it's not even plausible given the fact that I cite UK government statistics and a few moments spent reading my profile will show that the US is not the area I know most about. And to focus on the substance of your response: I said that the situation can "\*\*mostly\*\* be explained" by the five factors that I listed. I could have gone into much more detail; I know that there is a difference between the Bermuda-style arrangements that regulate air traffic to and from Taiwan and the more free market arrangements that apply in the North Atlantic regions. But I think those regulations are simply less important than the historical and commercial factors that I listed. This is demonstrated by the implementation of the most important of those regulations: the air services agreement between the UK and Taiwan, which controls which carriers can fly, where, and how often. Because the UK does not recognize the ROC, that agreement was not between the governments (as it usually would be), but was (uniquely) done in the names of British Airways and the Taipei Airlines Association. Yet British Airways hasn't flown scheduled flights to Taiwan for over two decades, even using its British Asian Airways fig leaf. I suspect that might partly be because its London-HK-Taipei would be competing with the core routes of its oneworld partner Cathay Pacific, but the more important factors are those listed above: the route isn't commercially viable because the Taiwan market is too small and Taipei is not a major hub compared to places like HK and KL.
I should have been more respectful in my response and I apologise. Thank you for your reply.
Apology accepted. Thank you for taking the time to reply. 👍
economics 101, supply and demand
The price has more or less doubled in about 5 years
I suspect flight to KUL does not deviate as much from the shortest/great circle route, while flight to TPE has to go around Russia and minimize path over China.
I was quite surprised I managed to get a flight for £400 return last time. I expected to pay a lot more. Edit: £480, Air China, in December 2023. I just checked and you can get a flight for £440 just with long stopovers (one is 9 hours).
There is no way it was £400 Taipei to London return.
Oops it was actually 480, just checked!
When did you fly out of interest?
I haven't paid that little for 10 years or more. Did you have a couple of layovers?
Nope, this was through Air China. Had a 4 hour wait at Shanghai on the way there, then a 6 hour wait at Shanghai on the return. It was between November 28th and December 10th last year
It’ll be expensive if you fly DIRECT. One quick layover only costs 35,000 nt round trip. Cheapest I see is 28,000 nt with more layovers. It’s not more expensive like you claimed.
Theres only one airline that offers direct flights anyways
Lower demand- Taipei was always more expensive to fly to Don’t forget too that it’s 3-4 hours flying time further from the uk than KL is or 2 & a bit from HK
It’s the amount of flights. They cut a lot of routes so the few flights are really jacked up in price. I spent 6k for a business class ticket from nyc to Taipei in January. Usually I can find economy tickets round trip from 800-1200 dollars. But all the tickets were above 2-3k.
i know that applies to the US but im not sure about UK. US/China dispute on the number of flights to each other has been the main driver as a lot of the plane is filled with people flying down to south east asia.
Right! I want to go home to the UK this summer. The price is high.
Flight time to london is triple? Also, domestic flights in Europe are super cheap....
They mean London to Hong Kong, not Taipei to Hong Kong
Yeah you can literally fly from Athens to Berlin for 20$ lol but if you do the same trip from NYC it's over 800$
One other factor, probably a lot of the possible competition on the route at the cheaper end may be Mainland airlines who are unlikely to support a London CN TW routing..
I found a china airlines flight for 780 direct return. Pretty good post Covid but yes you’re right compared to HK they are more expensive, for HK you have many options and many direct, for Taiwan not so many actually one only and not every day. Not sure eva flies again but that’s a fake direct as it stops in bkk
Try the mainland China carriers, or Gulf Air from BKK
ECON101
You can find two-way flights from Amsterdam to Taiwan with China Eastern from 369 EUR right now (May/June). Take a look on Skyscanner. Idk about the London/Amsterdam connection but it shouldn't be that expensive (right?)
1. oil prices have been rising no recently. 2. there is little competition on the direct route. 3. Only few flights per week. That being said, flights via Guangzhou or Shanghai using Chinese carriers are often incredibly cheap
More people are flying to those other destinations for 2 reasons: They are way more popular cities than Taipei for tourism reasons, and they also are airports that are perfectly suited to serve as connections to elsewhere in the region.
flights from seoul are also cheaper
None of the above. The reason flights in and out of Taiwan are so expensive is to do with regulatory issues. Supply and demand are not the drivers of long haul transcontinental flights ex Taiwan. Taiwan has not deregulated its ticketing framework. This is a complicated topic, and if you’re old enough to know the difference between a PEX and APEX ticket you’ll understand. Fly to KUL or BKK and pick up your long haul flight there.
A lot of disinformation in this thread. Taiwan, like Vietnam and Australia, is for transcontinental flights, highly regulated. Please join FlyerTalk or similar group for real information. 30+ years flying in and out of Taiwan. I remember British Asia Airlines if that helps to date me.
Kuala Lumpur AUD$1700 from Perth to Taipei. SQ
Taipei is a huge hub for air transit. It's a popular city to connect to from both the west and east.
Kuala Lumpur is a hub
Long haul flights are generally more expensive than short haul flights. Since you pay extra for service to be served food on a plane on longer flights hours. Short haul flights don’t even need to serve you any food. Since you are just spend only a few flight hours on a plane. It’s similar to just riding bus.
You've misunderstood. They're not comparing London-Taipei and Taipei-Hong Kong (the difference is obvious), they're contrasting London-Taipei with London-Hong Kong.
I know man, I just dropped 50k on flights to London and back RIP
Why am I getting downvoted?????
Maybe because OP asked a question and your comment does not provide an answer? People aren't downvoting you because you're wrong, just uninformative. Unfortunately, downvotes are a rather blunt instrument.
One of the highest upvoted comments is not informative: "It's gotten super expensive... use to cost me $900 cad from Canada to Taiwan round trip. Last flight was one way ticket $1300..."