EVA Air Boeing 777-300ER.
EVA Air is an airline based in Taiwain and was founded in 1989. They started flight operations on July 1, 1991 and today they fly to over 40 international destinations.
The airline has mostly an all wide-body fleet of aircraft including the Airbus A330, Boeing 777 and the Boeing 747. They also have a small fleet of MD-90 aircraft.
The airline has a unique livery using green and orange. The green represents durability and the orange represents technological innovation. According to Wikipedia, “The tail globe logo is intended to represent stability and reliability, and its positioning on the tail, with one corner off the edge, represents service innovation.”
I feel that the livery is beautiful and best appreciated in person. I have heard from some that they aren’t as much of a fan of the orange and green, but you do not find many airlines showing off green and especially with orange. The previous generation of livery still had the green and orange striping, but had a bit too much white.
Image: Jeremy Dwyer-Li ndgren
I flew EVA Air from SEA-TPE-BKK last year and back, all on their 777-300ERs. They have a decent on-board product, but it does feel a little antiquated. Seats were not the most comfortable in economy, but I got upgraded to premium economy on one leg which was noticeably better. They do have a nice IFE product and the food was pretty good too. All-in-all not a bad experience.
They fly their 747-400 and 747-400 combi from SEA-TPE. Although it would be cool to say I have flown on the combi, the in-flight entertainment is bad. Shared screens on the ceiling.
The plus of the 747-400, is you are able to sit on the upper deck in economy.
David
Wish I could have flown on the 747-400 upper deck! Combi would have been fun too, but glad for the personal screen on the 777-300ER on such a long flight!
It really is an avgeek’s dilemma isn’t it? For the average person, no question it will be the 777.
David
We took them out of LAX to Taipei, and were buried deep in coach on an absolutely full flight. In flight service was good, seatback video had plenty of selections (note to self, never watch a blockbuster like Avitar on a tiny screen). Food was one step removed from inedible. Flew in the combi down to Manila. That was a first for me, and it was a delight. Same inedible food. Return routing was just the same, with the same selection of aircraft and the same bad food.
I’d fly them again, only I would remember to pack a lunch.
I thought the old livery had too much white as well, but that single slim green line made that livery a little better than the typical white whale livery like on Lufthansa or Delta (current livery) 747s. I like EVA’s green belly livery…the white/green ratio is good, and a wider orange accent stripe than what they have would look garish…seems balanced in a way.
I have flown EVA a couple of times in Evergreen Deluxe Class (Economy plus) and have enjoyed each flight. There is a good amount of leg room with leg and foot rests in Evergreen Deluxe…not a lay-flat seat, but was comfortable enough. It was great having a Personal TV with a choice of several channels & also a flight progress map. I took a peek back in regular economy and was amazed how cramped the seat pitch was. I agree the shared screens on the ceiling would not be enjoyable to watch, though I would still say they are a step up from the old projection screen days. There was a choice between entrees during meal service, We also got an amenities packet with slippers, and eye mask, and a travel toothbrush, and playing cards were free.
First trip was in 1995:
SEA-TPE on an MD-11 (EVA no longer flies PAX version of MD-11) I was stuck in one of the middle seats so no window view to enjoy, but the IFE, good meal services, and a hot towel to freshen up with before arriving made for a pleasant flight.
Next was TPE-KHH on a 767. There were very few other PAX & it was weird being on a short domestic flight on a large plane. We parked at a remote stand at KHH, There were backyards of some poor looking houses right up against the perimeter fence, and the humidity was like a wall of heat when leaving the air conditioned plane to go down the airstairs.
Return flight KHH-TPE was on a Makung Airlines BAE-146 (Makung Air was later absorbed by UNI Air, EVA’s sister airline.) (KHH has this awesome sculpture in what used to be the Intl terminal…these gold dragons wrapped around a column in the middle of an octagonal waiting room: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaohsiung_Airport_Domestic.jpg) (KHH at the time was very busy with domestic flights…a constant stream of planes into a handful of gates. I’ve read that the new high speed rail system has made domestic flights almost nonexistant at KHH now.)) The flight was full this time. Arriving at TPE we parked at a remote stand so I enjoyed the rare opportunity for a long tarmac bus ride past many heavy jets before being dropped off at the terminal.
TPE-SEA was on a 744-combi…again excellent service by cabin crew. While flipping through the channels on my PTV on this flight, I discovered Mr. Bean for the first time. ()While in Taiwan, I discovered that the McDonalds there still serve the fried version of the apple pie which I much prefer to the baked version in the US, so I got many strange looks by US Customs officers in SEA as to why I was bringing a few McDonalds Apple Pies back from Taiwan! My home airport is EUG so on this trip I also flew on a QX D328 and Dash8-100…6 different aircraft types and my only flights on 4 of those types all within 10 days, woohoo!
Second trip was in early 2000:
SFO-TPE on 747-400 N403EV seat 33K. I had a chicken curry dish that was delicious.
Return flight was TPE-SEA on 744-combi. EVA puts First and Business Class on Upper Deck on the combi, Evergreen Deluxe was in the forward lower deck. I was lucky enough to sit in 22A on this flight…2nd row of seats in the nose. What an experience…soooo quiet being that far forward of the engines that you could hear the slipstream, and because of the fuselage curvature the wings aren’t visible to give that visual reference of what was keeping us up in the air or to block the view. Also because of the curvature, I could see a sliver of forward view through the windows during the approach to 16R at SEA (before the 3rd runway), a nice view for someone usually stuck in back with the side view that doesn’t let you see the runway until you are just about to touch down. I liked that chicken curry dish from the previous flight so much I asked for it again but it was not so good this time, SFO caterers definitely do a better job than the ones at TPE.
All flights were smooth and on time, each plane was immaculate, all cabin crew seemed to be well trained, very friendly, and eager to please PAX, each landing was greased-in…it was hard to tell that we had actually touched down until engines spooled up in reverse (unlike an Alitalia landing I experienced where it felt like the gear struts were going to come up through the floor). When flying to Taiwan, EVA is definitely my pick. It is curious that they don’t fly to HNL.
EVA used to fly to HNL, I once photographed their 767 there. But there must not be enough demand to justify TPE-HNL, as not only do they no longer fly the route, but the China Airlines flight to HNL makes a stop in Tokyo.