We reserved our return flight between Taitung (TTT) and Lanyu/Orchid Island (KYD) on the 19th and 20th of April, 2026. This wasn’t a straightforward process, so here’s how you can get a reservation as well
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Ferry or Plane to Lanyu/Orchid Island?
While planning our trip to Taiwan, we hit a snag; Jonas didn’t want to take the three-hour ferry ride from Fugang Harbor near Taitung to Lanyu, aka Orchid Island. I’d planned with the reliable ferry in mind. The reason ? The online reviews say it’s a vomit rocket due to the rough seas. I tried to reassure him that it would be okay if he doesn’t eat before the trip and takes his seasickness pills, but he refused.
The only alternative was to fly in a very tiny plane to Lanyu from Taitung Airport. Wikipedia said there’s a local Taiwanese airline called Daily Air – sometimes translated as “De’an Air” from 德安航空 – that does these flights. They use the small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter airplanes that fit a maximum of 19 passengers for this route. However, due to weather, these flights are often canceled (at a rate of 30–50%). Luckily, they do this route multiple times a day, so it might be possible to hop on a later flight if the weather window allows for a safe departure and landing.
Unfortunately, their website http://www.dailyair.com.tw/ was down. We tried for ten minutes to find any VPN that made it work, but no luck. This was a major red flag, but I didn’t want to give up.
So I tried to find any website that worked. I stared my search with FlightRadar24. KYD airport didn’t have any scheduled departures/arrivals according to this aggregator website. Neither did the neighboring Lüdao/Green Island (GNI). TTT airport had no departures/arrivals to KYD airport, but it had a small DHC-6 plane under the tab ‘on ground’. And it was about to leave to Orchid Island. I later found more tiny planes roaming the skies on this route.
I then went to the website of Taitung Airport, which worked fine and had confirmed flights and departed flights on a regularly-updated screen. With this proof of concept, Jonas got on board with me again.
He found an old page of the Daily Air website on the Internet Archive and a phone number. This phone number matched the one mentioned on the Taitung Airport website.
Calling with Daily Air to Reserve a Flight to Lanyu
Next, I had to find the courage to conduct a phone call with Taiwan. I am, after all, a phone-avoiding millennial. I did this like 10 minutes before their business hours ended at 17:00 Taiwan time. Somehow, Malaysia and Taiwan are in the same time zone…
Jonas gave me his phone with his Satellite app (Apple Store + Google Play, but you need a German address to receive snail mail to activate it), which we use to place international calls for free. The phone number on the internet archive is (07) 801-4711, so to make it international, dial +886 7801 4711.
After the world’s shortest phone waiting line, someone picked up. I only understood nǐ hǎo, then repeated that and asked if someone there speaks English. The lady said something about English and then put me through to another lady who spoke excellent English.
I told her I wanted to book a flight from Taitung to Lanyu and that the website doesn’t work. She said she can make a reservation for us via phone. I confirmed that’s what I wanted. Then she asked if it was going to be a one-way ticket or return flight.
I wasn’t sure. I wanted to be on a ferry from Taitung to Lanyu and then Lanyu to Kenting (Houbihu Fishing Harbor). This would have been a super elegant way to travel to southern Taiwan. But Jonas hadn’t agreed to be on the much calmer ferry from Lanyu to Kenting, so I said “Return flight, please.”
We can figure out how to get to Kenting later.
She asked for the dates. I asked for an outgoing flight and then a return flight five days later. This is considered a long stay on Lanyu.
We discussed times. Getting from Xincheng Taroko Station near Hualien to Kangle Station nearby Taitung Airport isn’t a short journey as it takes about three hours. I wanted to make sure we could make the flight, so I asked for something in the afternoon. The 14:35 flight is what we agreed on. For a return flight, we chose an early flight at 10:15.
I asked the price for good measure. Each flight is NTD 1.415 per person, which is about €40. This is barely more expensive than the ferry ticket (NTD 1.150). It seems to be a fixed price. Since this is just a reservation, you only pay for the flight at the airport in Taitung with cash or credit card. It’s kind of a trust system. You have to be at the airport 40 minutes before the flight departs.
Then I had to give her the passenger’s names. I started with Jonas’ easier last name. I noticed she repeated the letters back in the NATO phonetic alphabet, so I quickly googled those and Jonas ChatGPT’d them. My list was faster.
Now we were rolling! I spelled out our names Victor – Echo – Lima – Delta – Whiskey – India – Juliett – Kilo and she confirmed them. This was smooth.
By now, the business hours were almost over, so we were finishing things up. She gave us a reservation code and asked for my email address, which I gave. Then she said maybe we can send them an email and she’ll put the reservation in writing for the next day. So the email address of Daily Air is service@dailyair.com.tw and perhaps it’s possible to do this entire exchange by email. Good to know!
We said goodbye on the phone and I sent the email containing the six-digit reservation number and some other details. The business day was over.
The reason I was so stoked about this interaction actually working was that the experience was similar to when I booked the helicopter return trip from Algeciras to Ceuta; by telephone, completely in Spanish, even included credit card details (okay, the last part was a little sketchy). Back then, I was also amazed when it worked out.
Reservation Confirmed with Daily Air
The following day, I was on a boat trip near Batu Ferringhi in Penang when I got the confirmation email. Everything looked correct with zero spelling mistakes.
Booking/reserving flights via telephone is quickly becoming my favorite way to get things done compared to the scammy scumminess of using Skyscanner and Momondo that change their prices every time you blink.
I’d realized right after the phone call I’d forgotten to ask about baggage allowance on Daily Air’s small DCH-6 planes, so I immediately sent an email back to ask about that. Within an hour, I had an email back with the following:
Free baggage allowance (10 kg per person). No single item may exceed 30 kilograms (inclusive).Before the cargo door size shall not exceed the length X width X height 77 * 73 * 65 cm.Rear cargo door size shall not exceed the length X width X height 71 * 98 * 95 cm.Over one kilogram extra NT.11
Okay, so that’s chill. Perhaps our backpacks are individually a little over 10kg, but for €0.30 extra per kilo, there’s no need to stress about this.
I checked if their website worked over the next couple of days, but it never got back online. On FlightRadar24 I’d regularly check how many flights were going to both Lanyu/Orchid Island as well as Lüdao/Green Island. There were a lot of cancellations, usually due to strong crosswinds (>23kts) relative to KYD airport… But the aviation academy at TTT was always going strong with their small planes circling Green Island and Taitung itself.
That wrapped up our reservation of our Daily Air flights between Taitung and Lanyu/Orchid Island. I’m super stoked about this trip. Hopefully, the weather will be nice on the day of departure 🤞
Good info? Consider buying me a green tea!
Images on this page from Google Maps, and by Ben Lin and moscandy88 from Pixabay
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