SilkAir will introduce a four-times weekly service to the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan from May 25, 2007.

Flights will depart Singapore every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, at 0735 hours and will arrive in Kaohsiung at 1205 hours. The return flight will depart from Kaohsiung at 1255 hours, arriving in Singapore at 1710 hours (all times local).

The morning departures will cater to both leisure and business traffic out of Singapore and offer easy connections from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Indonesia, which are important source markets for inbound tourism to Taiwan.

Flights will be operated on SilkAir's Airbus A319 aircraft.

Kaohsiung is Taiwan's second largest city and one of the busiest seaports in Asia. It is also home to Taiwan's largest steel mill, shipyard, petrochemical complexes and a thriving fishing industry.

While the bustling city retains its roots in shipbuilding and freight handling, it is embracing an exciting future as a fast growing international metropolis. Beautiful architecture, historic temples, hot springs, night markets and a burgeoning restaurant and bar scene give Kaohsiung its growing appeal for leisure tourism.

With Taiwan's first high-speed rail system launched in January this year, travel between capital Taipei and Kaohsiung (and the six cities in between) is reduced from four hours to 90 minutes, making the entire Taiwanese west coast now an easy day trip from either city.

Kaohsiung will also host the quadrennial World Games in 2009, the international sports tournament that is second only to the Olympics in scale.

"It's a reinvigorated market, and we're thrilled to serve the international gateway of Southern Taiwan," said David Lim, SilkAir's Vice President Commercial. "Beyond business and cargo traffic, the maturing tourist market offers tremendous opportunities for both inbound and outbound leisure travel. We're offering customers easy onward connections to more than 90 cities in the joint Singapore Airlines - SilkAir network."

Note: Operating schedules are pending regulatory approvals.