A Chinese airline will bring winter visitors to Fairbanks. Explore Fairbanks Tourism director Scott McCrae says Taiwan-based China Airlines flights are scheduled for December.
“Charter service from Taipei to Fairbanks. They’re planning three different flights: December 4th, 8th and 12th, using the A 340 aircraft. They’ve got capacity of 280 passengers.”
McCrae says the flights which are already fully booked are primarily aimed at visitors coming to Fairbanks for Aurora viewing. The China Airlines charters are similar to those flown to the city for Aurora tours by Japan Airlines.
“There’s some mirroring, looking at previous charter service of how that might have been successful, and those were the dates that they’ve landed on for this inaugural launch.”
McCrae says the nine hour direct flights are shorter than connecting flights Chinese visitors can otherwise use to get to Fairbanks on Delta, Alaska Airlines and other carriers.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
