Loong Air Just Opened Its First Cross-Strait Route—Chengdu to Taichung

On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Zhejiang’s Loong Air put Chengdu Tianfu International Airport and Taichung International Airport on the same ticket twice a week. Soft-claim the airline’s own framing, carried by Focus Taiwan and CNA: it is Loong Air’s first direct cross-strait service. Soft-claim the operating days as Tuesdays and Saturdays—enough to plan around, not enough to treat as a shuttle.

The clock is what travelers will actually use. Soft-claim GJ8301 leaving Chengdu Tianfu at 11:10 a.m. and arriving Taichung at 2:25 p.m. Soft-claim the turn GJ8302 departing Taichung at 3:25 p.m. and reaching Tianfu at 7:00 p.m. Soft-claim AeroRoutes’ equipment note as Airbus A320 family metal on the launch pattern. Soft-claim those times as published airline schedules; live days still move with ATC, weather, and slot reality.

Taichung’s map context keeps the story honest. Soft-claim the Taichung Tourism and Travel Bureau via CNA: the airport now lists about thirty-one operating or announced routes, including twenty regular services and eleven charter routes. Soft-claim Chengdu as one of three scheduled cross-strait links currently serving Taichung, beside Nanjing and Qingdao. Soft-claim that as mid-island choice architecture—central Taiwan travelers who already sleep in Taichung, visit family in Changhua or Nantou, or stage a west-coast loop no longer need every western-China trip to clear through Taoyuan first.

The inaugural ceremony soft-claims the usual civic cast: Loong Air vice president Wang Yuguo, Taichung Airport director Zhang Ruishu, and tourism bureau secretary-general Liao Weizhi among those present, per CNA’s Chinese-language report. Soft-claim Wang’s line that the route is a new departure for the airline and a responsibility to connect Tianfu with central Taiwan. Soft-claim the bureau’s summer pitch—more diverse leisure options in peak season—and its soft-claim Taiwan Tourist Shuttle 555, framed as about thirty minutes from the airport into the city. Soft-claim that bus as a planning hint, not a guarantee for every bag and every traffic day.

What this is not: a sudden reopening of every suspended mainland city pair, a daily frequency story, or a substitute for Taipei’s denser mainland and international web. Soft-claim the so-what as geographic. Chengdu is a western China hub with its own leisure and business pull; Taichung is the mid-island airport that already sells night markets, cycling, and a shorter hop to the west coast. Soft-claim Loong Air when those two cities are your actual ends, and soft-claim Nanjing or Qingdao when those cities are. Soft-claim permits and entry rules for cross-strait travel as traveler homework that sits beside the ticket, not as something an airline ribbon-cutting erases.

What to watch next is operational and small. Soft-claim whether Tuesday and Saturday loads justify a third weekly day. Soft-claim whether Taichung’s announced-route count keeps converting into seats you can actually buy. Soft-claim competing coastal gateways for travelers who still prefer a transfer when fares or timings beat the nonstop. Soft-claim the live Loong Air and airport pages before you treat an inaugural timetable as forever.

The useful change is a western-China city pair on a mid-island airport—not a rewrite of the whole cross-strait map. Soft-claim Chengdu–Taichung when your itinerary already lives in central Taiwan or Sichuan. Soft-claim twice weekly as a calendar you plan around, and soft-claim the August booking window as the first honest test of whether the route earns its second season.