TRANSASIA Airways’ newly-launched Taipei-Singapore service got off to a strong start, with its inaugural flight from Singapore departing last Thursday with a full load of 150 passengers.

Taiwan Representative Office in Singapore’s Vanessa Shih said: “Although Singapore Airlines and China Airlines recently added flights on the route, there continues to be a shortage of seats, and TransAsia injection of 1050 seats per week in each direction is timely.”

Shih added that Taiwan was a top destination among the youth in Singapore, according to a survey by a local Chinese daily newspaper in 2009.

Lester Song, assistant general manager of Maple Aviation, TransAsia’s Singapore GSA, said: “While we initially have to rely on tour groups to fill the daily flight, we are aggressively targeting both individual and corporate travellers. Corporate travellers are being reached through a combination of initiatives with corporate agents and various business associations.”

He added: “Through social media such as Facebook, we are reaching out to the younger FITs, and these currently account for about 20 per cent of the bookings. We hope to increase this to 30 per cent soon.”

TransAsia Airways’ chairman, Vincent Lin, said: “Our flight GE888 is the first in the morning from Singapore to Taipei, and the return flight departs Taipei at 7.20 pm. This schedule is not only favourable for leisure visitors, but also creates a possibility for business travellers to have half a day of meetings in Taipei before returning to Singapore the same day.”

Lin said that TransAsia would build Singapore into its South-east Asian hub, from where the airline is considering further links to Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

He also confirmed that the airline’s first wide-body aircraft – an Airbus A330-300 – will be deployed on the Singapore route after being delivered in November 2012.