EVA Air (Taipei) will open the planned Taipei (Taoyuan)-Houston (Bush Intercontinental) route on June 19, 2015. The new route will be operated three days a week.

Update: On December 15 EVA Air made this announcement:

EVA Air will initiate nonstop flights between Taipei and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) on June 19, 2015. The airline will start the new service with three flights a week and increase frequency to four on July 1, 2015.

EVA will serve the route with a brand-new Boeing 777-300 ER equipped with WiFi, the latest inflight entertainment system and SMS roaming service that passengers can use to send and receive short messages on their own mobile phones. The aircraft is scheduled for delivery in May 2015 and will be specially painted nose-to-tail with Texas–sized Hello Kitty and Sanrio characters. It will have 333 seats, configured with 39 in Royal Laurel Class business, 56 in Elite premium economy and 238 in Economy.

Further enhancing the convenience of its routing, the airline will fly the new Hello Kitty Jet between Taipei and Singapore in addition to using it for Houston service.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Now repainted from the special “Boeing 777-300ER” livery, Boeing 777-35E ER B-16702 (msn 32640) arrives in Los Angeles.

EVA Air aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Asia-1/Airlines-Asia1-AE/EVA-Air