Starlux Airlines

Is Starlux safe?

Yes. Starlux, Taiwan's newest international airline, has had no accident since it began flying in January 2020, and every aircraft it flies was delivered new from Airbus. We score it 85. The main limit is time: six years is a short record, and crew events in 2023, 2024 and 2025 show that a young airline's procedures and crew experience are still being tested.

A young airline with a young fleet

Starlux was founded by K.W. Chang, a former chairman of EVA Air and son of the Evergreen group's founder, and it flies only Airbus aircraft. When it took its first Airbus A350-1000 in January 2026, ch-aviation counted about 30 aircraft:

Type	In service (Jan 2026)	On order
Airbus A321neo	13	6
Airbus A330-900	6	2
Airbus A350-900	10	0
Airbus A350-1000	1	17
Airbus A350F (freighter)	0	10

None of these aircraft is much more than six years old, and all are current-generation fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary designs. This is the strongest part of the score. The fleet is growing fast, with more A350-1000s due through 2026, which brings its own challenge: every new aircraft needs crews, and a fast-growing airline has to hire and promote pilots quickly.

The crew events

Starlux has no accident on record, so its incidents are the best guide to how the airline operates.

27 July 2023, Bangkok. An A321neo with 178 people on board, flight JX741 from Taipei, touched down hard at Bangkok. It taxied in normally, but it stayed on the ground for more than two days while a repair team flew in (AeroInside).

31 October 2024, Taoyuan. Flight JX871 from Okinawa, an A321neo, arrived as Typhoon Kong-rey hit Taiwan. Weather reports at the time showed wind gusts above 50 knots and windshear warnings on all runways. The aircraft bounced on touchdown, video appeared to show the left wingtip close to or touching the runway, and the crew went around and landed about 30 minutes later. Starlux said an inspection found no wing damage, and Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) reviewed the hard landing.

3 March 2025, Clark. On flight JX789 from Taipei to Clark in the Philippines, the two pilots broke company procedures during a go-around. The case came out when an aviation YouTuber published it. After an internal investigation, both pilots left. K.W. Chang told shareholders on 13 June 2025 that safety standards were non-negotiable. The CAA said the airline had cooperated and could still face a fine.

None of these events hurt anyone. All involve crew handling rather than aircraft faults, and that is why we score serious incidents at 72, the weakest of Starlux's factors.

How Taiwan oversees Starlux

Starlux holds an air operator's certificate from Taiwan's CAA, the same regulator as EVA Air and China Airlines. The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board investigates accidents and serious incidents independently. Taiwan has FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, and no Taiwanese airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. Because Taiwan is not a member of ICAO, there is no ICAO audit score to check. Starlux is an IATA member, which means it has passed the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary safety audit.

What we cannot see yet is how Starlux handles a major event. It has not had one, and we found no published TTSB investigation report on a Starlux flight. Our confidence is therefore medium: the record is clean, but it is short, and most of what is public comes from news reports and the airline itself rather than from investigators. We will revisit the score as the airline passes ten years and its fleet grows past 40 aircraft.

Flying Starlux safely

• Watch the typhoon forecast between July and October. The 2024 bounced landing happened in a typhoon. If a storm is forecast for Taipei on your travel day, an earlier or later flight is a sensible choice, and rebooking is usually allowed.
• Keep your belt fastened when seated. On the long routes to the US west coast, North Pacific jet stream turbulence is common.
• Expect a new aircraft. Every Starlux type is a current Airbus model, so the type of aircraft matters less here than on older airlines.

How we scored it

Fleet (95) is well ahead of EVA Air's (80) and China Airlines' (76). The accident record (88) is clean but short. Oversight (84) matches EVA Air and China Airlines, which answer to the same regulator. Serious incidents (72) pull the score down. Compare Cathay Pacific, with a much longer record and an older fleet.