✈ Airlines | StarLux

In a blossoming low budget market where hundreds of millions of people, maybe upwards of a billion, are on a budget or want budget travel because it’s only a few hours between destinations, someone wants to start a luxury Airline called StarLux.

My prediction it will crash and burn.

http://m.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2017/07/10/499318/A-first.htm

He should call it BudgetLux and market to the budget conscious people that want to identify with luxury. These are what like 95 - 99% of the market and he’s shooting for the 1% of the market.

My prediction it will crash and burn.

Even the logo sucks. Who did he get to design that, his cousin from Chaiyi who’s never even been on airplane let alone know anything about luxury travel? Who’s going to take confidence in a brown and pukey yellowish logo?

You can’t even recognize the airline from the Insignia there is no connection.

My prediction it will crash and burn.

And wouldn’t a serious new Airline want to be headquartered near the airport and airplanes and pilots and staff instead of in the middle of Taipei?

My prediction it will crash and burn.

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Hmm, I wouldn’t be so quick to pass judgment. Chang was the victim of a nasty succession feud, the son of Chang Yung-fa’s second wife shut out by the sons of his first wife. Chang rose up the ranks of Eva as a pilot, and proved to be a talented manager before he was removed from the board. On the minus side, he was responsible for the Hello Kitty branding strategy, ha. He definitely has an uphill battle ahead in starting a new airline, but he seems like the most talented and ambitious of Chang Yung-fa’s sons.

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I agree on that one. It has more of a Star Wars feel than luxury brand. But then you have to hit the mark with snob luxury travelers from China mainly. Maybe they’ll dig it.

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Not like the name has not been used before…

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Exactly.

I was thinking he is aiming for the Little Times crowd, the Chinese jet setters who want the spotlight with the faux French brocade. The market is there, he can just survive doing Pan Asian luxury flights. I was thinking something more along the lines of private corporate jets time share -like the job ad a few weeks back-, for the ones who think 1st class in an A380 is too hoi polloi.

EVA used to provide the private jet for Takeshi Kaneshiro to fly to Cannes. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You are obsessed with that heartthrob, aren’t you? :laughing:

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Sigh. It is a condition. :rofl:

What’s needed.from my perspective is airlines operating all premium economy pricing. Business class is too expensive, but economy is not suitable for business travellers.

Would pack them out if they contracted with businesses for annual deals.

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sure is a strange choice for a brand name

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i like the logo. reminds me of 80s movies about space or something. this part i can dig. the luxury part, not so much.

At least he is a skilled pilot who knows how to run an airline.

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I think that top of the line should be the general direction of Taiwanese enterprises. Aim for quality, not quantity. Do not sell that much, but sell expensive, good quality stuff. There is always a market for that. The ultra rich ain’t “tightening their belts” so to speak.

Taiwanese may be frugal, even stingy, cut corners on many things, but one thing I have learned: they do not like cheap looking stuff. They like a good deal, just like anyone else, but when it comes to “face”, the higher the price tag, the more they buy.

Just don’t ask me why that ugly as hell LV bags are so ubiquitous.

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Although I’ve read that it’s hard for airlines to build customer loyalty because all customers want is to get to their destination as cheap as possible. If it’s uncomfortable, they can tough it out for a couple of hours.

Some sources I’ve read lately indicate that premium economy (as a kind of “middle class” seat, between cheapo economy and business/first) has trouble in Asia, where there are some very rich people (who don’t hesitate to pay for J class or even F if available) and lots of folks looking for a bargain. Premium economy apparently sells better in Europe and parts of North America, but is a challenge in this part of the world.

Guy

It depends, for long haul it’s brutal taking economy for business travellers but the cost of business tickets
long haul for staff is also massive. The company I work for has a lot of issues with this. Its the difference between sending three people for meeting instead of one person.
When I say premium economy it could be closer to business than economy at least for the seats.

I’ve tried premium economy seats several times and found them to be basically economy class with better meals. Just not worth the money. I pay for business class to get a lie-flat bed; that’s all I want. If I want to eat complicated meals, I’d rather go to a restaurant. Just give me a sandwich and a beer, and let me sleep.

OTOH, I’m probably not the typical customer.

I agree with the above comments that he’s probably aiming at nouveau riches mainland Chinese, whose definition of ‘luxury’ is probably somewhat different to everyone else’s.

Brianjones: they charge what they charge for business because they know there are enough clients who will just suck it up. Apparently the margins on economy are tiny; the cost of the flight is basically shouldered by those few who pay for premium treatment.

But yeah, the logo is a total disaster. He could have paid $500 on UpWork and got a better result than that.

Seems getting a good start with nice airbus aircraft (not 737 - 8 max which as grounded in China as unsafe) later this year, and it intends to be a full service airline.

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FROM https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/08/21/starlux-airlines/

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It’s going to be ruff and tuff
Taiwan’s got two other airlines already that are full service and they are established over decades and just make modest profits at best

Low cost doesn’t work in Taiwan with all the competition there is already

StarLux has its work cut out
Chang just doing it for personal pride and revenge

However he is a very sharp fella with a billion or two to kick around

Wouldn’t under estimate him

I think the design looks great- very retro.