STARLUX chairman pilots Airsorayama Silver’s inaugural flight to Tokyo

STARLUX Airlines celebrated a milestone over the weekend of July 11, 2026, as Airsorayama Silver, one of two specially designed Airbus A350-1000 aircraft in its fleet, completed its first commercial flight to Tokyo. 

The Taiwan-based carrier said the flight was piloted by its own chairman, Chang Kuo-wei, who took the controls for the occasion.

The aircraft was built in collaboration with Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, known for a futuristic, mechanical aesthetic built around metallic finishes and liquid-metal textures.

After landing in Tokyo, Chang invited Sorayama aboard to sign the cabin in person, a moment STARLUX described on LinkedIn as “a promise fulfilled”.

In the same post, the airline said Chang had piloted the flight himself specifically to present the finished aircraft to the artist who inspired it, calling the plane the world’s largest flying work of art and describing the Tokyo stop as the first international leg of the Airsorayama world tour.

Passengers on the flight, designated JX 801, were part of the occasion as well. Travelers received a set of commemorative keepsakes, including a flight tag, a trading card, and a limited-edition tote bag, to mark what the airline called the start of a new chapter in aerial artistry. 

The airline added that Sorayama was pleased with the final result, which led him to sign the Silver livery himself.

Airsorayama Silver and its counterpart, Airsorayama Gold, are scheduled to enter regular service on October 1, 2026 flying routes to Tokyo, Phoenix, and Prague. 

Each aircraft seats 350 passengers across four cabins: four seats in First Class, 40 in Business, 36 in Premium Economy, and 270 in Economy.

From color swatch to cruising altitude

Behind the aircraft’s finish is a three-year effort involving STARLUX, Airbus, Pantone, and German coatings specialist Mankiewicz. 

The goal was to translate Sorayama’s signature mirror-like metallic look into something that could actually fly. A challenging feat, since his classic finishes do not meet aviation safety, structural, or lightning-protection standards.

Pantone worked to reproduce Sorayama’s silver and gold aesthetic in shades engineered for consistent results at aircraft scale, rather than the ornamental, high-shine metallics typically associated with luxury branding. 

Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute, said the project was less about mixing color and more about controlling how light behaves on the surface, with the team stripping out visible shimmer particles to land on a smooth, liquid-metal effect that shifts depending on angle and lighting.

Engineers eventually settled on a family of mica-based pigments dense enough to produce a reflective, metallic look while still meeting the strict standards required for commercial aircraft. Getting there took more than ten rounds of testing before Sorayama signed off on the final formulation. From there, a team of 16 specialists spent 20 days applying the multi-layer coating to the aircraft.

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