Key Takeaways
- Taoyuan is Taiwan's megahub by a wide margin. Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) serves around 92 regularly-served nonstop destinations — more than every other Taiwanese airport combined — and is the home base of EVA Air and China Airlines.
- A capital gateway, then a domestic island network. After Taoyuan, the busiest airports are Kaohsiung (KHH) in the south and Taichung (RMQ) in the centre, while downtown Taipei Songshan (TSA) runs a small set of regional and cross-strait routes. Below them sit a string of small fields serving the outlying islands.
- Direct US flights run only from Taoyuan. TPE is Taiwan's sole nonstop gateway to the United States — to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Houston and more — flown by EVA Air, China Airlines, Starlux and United. No other Taiwanese airport has scheduled US service.
- Some airports exist mainly as island lifelines. Airports on Kinmen, Penghu and Matsu run almost entirely domestic schedules. With no practical alternative to flying, they keep the offshore islands tied to Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung year-round.
- We rank by regularly-served routes, not raw counts. Figures come from observed route data, so we rank by the regularly-served nonstop count — routes flown often enough to count as scheduled service — rather than raw totals that include one-off observations.
Taiwan packs a dense, modern aviation network onto a single mountainous island a little smaller than the Netherlands — plus a scatter of outlying islands in the Taiwan Strait. The system is overwhelmingly dominated by one gateway, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, which handles almost all of the island’s international and long-haul traffic and serves as the home hub of EVA Air and China Airlines (joined since 2020 by ambitious newcomer Starlux Airlines). Below it sits a handful of city airports and a network of small domestic fields that keep the offshore islands connected.
Below we map and rank Taiwan’s airports by the number of nonstop destinations each one serves, drawn from live route data on AirportRoutes. We rank by regularly-served destinations — routes flown often enough to count as scheduled service — rather than raw nonstop totals. The figures come from observed flight data (a large sample rather than a complete published timetable), so treat them as a guide to relative connectivity, not official totals.
Which Taiwanese airports have direct flights to the US?
Nonstop flying between Taiwan and the United States is concentrated entirely at Taoyuan (TPE). It offers scheduled service to a growing list of US cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Ontario and Phoenix — flown by EVA Air, China Airlines, Starlux Airlines and United. Taoyuan is also one of the Pacific’s biggest air-cargo hubs: EVA Air and China Airlines run heavy freighter operations through Anchorage, which shows up in the data as a technical and cargo stop rather than a passenger destination.
No other Taiwanese airport has scheduled nonstop flights to North America. Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei Songshan are short- and medium-haul only — overwhelmingly regional Asian and domestic markets — so travellers heading elsewhere in Taiwan from the US connect through Taoyuan or a major Asian hub such as Tokyo, Hong Kong or Seoul.
Ranked
Major Airports in Taiwan by Nonstop Destinations
Ranked by regularly-served nonstop destinations, busiest first.
| Airport | IATA | Nonstop | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Taoyuan | TPE | 92 | Taipei / Taoyuan |
| 2. Kaohsiung | KHH | 36 | Kaohsiung (south) |
| 3. Taichung | RMQ | 17 | Taichung (central) |
| 4. Taipei Songshan | TSA | 13 | Taipei (city) |
| 5. Kinmen | KNH | 5 | Kinmen Islands |
| 6. Penghu / Magong | MZG | 5 | Penghu Islands |
| 7. Hualien | HUN | 4 | Hualien (east) |
| 8. Tainan | TNN | 4 | Tainan (south) |
| 9. Matsu / Nangan | LZN | 2 | Matsu Islands |
| 10. Chiayi | CYI | 2 | Chiayi (southwest) |
| 11. Matsu / Beigan | MFK | 1 | Matsu Islands |
| 12. Taitung | TTT | 1 | Taitung (southeast) |
A closer look at Taiwan’s main airports
✈️ Taoyuan (TPE)
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport opened in 1979 — originally as Chiang Kai-shek International — about 40 km west of central Taipei, in Taoyuan. It is Taiwan’s principal international gateway and the home hub of EVA Air and China Airlines, as well as a fast-growing base for Starlux Airlines and the low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan. The Airport MRT links it directly to Taipei Main Station in around 35 minutes, and a long-running expansion is adding a third terminal.
Serving Taipei and northern Taiwan, TPE reaches about 92 regularly-served nonstop destinations — and it is the only airport in the country with a true intercontinental network, spanning North America, Europe, Oceania and across Asia. Top routes include Hong Kong, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Tokyo (Narita) and Osaka.
Main airlines: EVA Air, China Airlines, Starlux Airlines, Tigerair Taiwan, Cathay Pacific, Peach Aviation. See the full route map for TPE on AirportRoutes →
🛫 Kaohsiung (KHH)
Kaohsiung International Airport serves Taiwan’s second-largest city and main southern port, sitting just 9 km from downtown and linked to it by the Kaohsiung MRT red line. It is Taiwan’s second-busiest airport and the principal gateway for the south, balancing a regional international network with heavy domestic links to the offshore islands.
Serving Kaohsiung and southern Taiwan, KHH reaches about 36 regularly-served nonstop destinations, mostly across East and Southeast Asia. Top routes include Magong (Penghu), Kinmen, Hong Kong and Tokyo (Narita), and a long-planned terminal expansion is under way to lift its capacity.
Main airlines: China Airlines, EVA Air, Mandarin Airlines, Tigerair Taiwan, T’way Air. See the full route map for KHH on AirportRoutes →
🏙️ Taichung (RMQ)
Taichung International Airport sits about 20 km north-west of Taichung city in central Taiwan, sharing its runways with the Ching Chuan Kang air base. It is the country’s third-busiest airport, serving the populous central-western plain with a mix of domestic island routes and short-haul regional international flights.
Serving Taichung and central Taiwan, RMQ reaches about 17 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top routes include Kinmen, Magong (Penghu), Hong Kong, Kobe and Ho Chi Minh City.
Main airlines: UNI Air, Mandarin Airlines, Tigerair Taiwan, VietJet Air, Hong Kong Express. See the full route map for RMQ on AirportRoutes →
🛬 Taipei Songshan (TSA)
Taipei Songshan Airport sits right inside Taipei, a few kilometres north of the city centre, and was the capital’s original airport before Taoyuan opened in 1979. Today it handles mostly domestic flights, plus a tightly regulated set of downtown-to-downtown international links — Tokyo (Haneda), Seoul (Gimpo) and Shanghai (Hongqiao) — and cross-strait routes to mainland China, all under reciprocal city-pair agreements.
Serving central Taipei, TSA reaches about 13 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top routes include Kinmen, Magong (Penghu), Matsu, Tokyo (Haneda) and Taitung — a telling mix of the offshore-island lifelines and premium city-centre international links.
Main airlines: EVA Air, UNI Air, Mandarin Airlines, China Airlines, Japan Airlines. See the full route map for TSA on AirportRoutes →
🏝️ Kinmen (KNH)
Kinmen Airport (Shang-Yi) serves the Kinmen Islands, which lie only a few kilometres off the Chinese city of Xiamen — far closer to the mainland than to Taiwan itself. Despite that, it is one of Taiwan’s busiest domestic airports, acting almost entirely as a lifeline between the islands and the main island’s cities.
Serving Kinmen, KNH reaches about 5 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all of them domestic. Top routes include Taipei (Songshan), Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung. Travellers can also reach mainland China directly by the short “mini three links” ferry to Xiamen.
Main airlines: UNI Air, Mandarin Airlines, EVA Air. See the full route map for KNH on AirportRoutes →
⛴️ Penghu / Magong (MZG)
Magong Airport serves the Penghu (Pescadores) archipelago, a cluster of islands in the middle of the Taiwan Strait that draws crowds every summer for its beaches and water sports. It is one of the country’s busiest domestic airports, linking the islands to the main-island cities.
Serving Penghu, MZG reaches about 5 regularly-served nonstop destinations, all domestic. Top routes include Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Chiayi — and demand spikes sharply during the summer holiday season.
Main airlines: UNI Air, Mandarin Airlines, EVA Air. See the full route map for MZG on AirportRoutes →
🌊 Hualien (HUN)
Hualien Airport sits on Taiwan’s rugged east coast and shares a base with the air force. It is the main gateway to Taroko Gorge and the dramatic east-coast scenery, a region cut off from the west by the Central Mountain Range and historically far easier to reach by air than by road.
Serving Hualien and the east coast, HUN reaches about 4 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top routes include Kaohsiung, Taipei (Songshan), Taichung and Hong Kong, with occasional seasonal links to Korea.
Main airlines: Mandarin Airlines, UNI Air, Hong Kong Express. See the full route map for HUN on AirportRoutes →
Taiwan’s other regional and island airports
Beyond the busiest seven, Taiwan has a handful of smaller airports that survive mainly on domestic links — connecting historic southern cities and the remotest offshore islands back to Taipei and the main-island hubs.
Tainan (TNN) serves Taiwan’s oldest city in the south and shares a military air base; alongside domestic flights it runs a few international routes to Japan, such as Osaka and Okinawa. The two Matsu airports — Nangan (LZN) and Beigan (MFK) — sit on islands far to the north, just off the Chinese coast near Fuzhou, and their weather-dependent flights to Taipei Songshan are often the only practical way on or off the islands when the ferries are grounded by fog.
Chiayi (CYI), in the south-west, is mostly a feeder to the offshore islands of Magong and Kinmen, while Taitung (TTT), on the south-east coast, is the gateway to the East Rift Valley and the outlying Green Island and Orchid Island, with domestic links to Taipei. Several of these airports double as military air bases, a reminder of how closely Taiwan’s aviation network is tied to its geography and its security.
Airport rankings, nonstop-destination counts, served regions, airline lists and US connections are drawn from live AirportRoutes route data (observed AeroAPI flight data — a sample, not a complete published schedule; we use the regularly-served figure, which filters one-off observations). Airport history and notable facts are cross-checked against the cited references. The ranked map is a Mappr original.
Primary Data Source:
- AirportRoutes — Major airports & routes, Taiwan – Live route data: per-airport nonstop destinations, served cities, airlines and US connections.
Reference:
- Wikipedia — Taiwanese airports (Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Songshan & others) – Airport history, location and notable facts referenced in the per-airport sections.
- Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), Taiwan – Taiwan's civil aviation regulator — background on the national airport network.
- Taoyuan International Airport Corporation – Official operator of Taiwan's main international gateway.
- Locator maps — Google Maps / Google Static Maps – Per-airport location maps with airplane markers, generated via Google Static Maps.
Image Sources:
- Map by Mappr – Map of major airports in Taiwan — a Mappr original built from AirportRoutes data and Natural Earth boundaries.
