Peach Aviation (MM, Osaka Kansai) has confirmed it will open a new base in Sendai towards the end of the third quarter of this year.

The ANA Holdings budget carrier said in a statement that effective September 24, it will develop new services from the eastern Japanese seaboard city to each of Sapporo Chitose and Taipei Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Together with its Sendai-Osaka Kansai flights that opened in April 2013, these new services will expand the Peach network out of Sendai to two domestic and one international routes. Further routes are likely to be announced in due course as Peach seeks to develop the Tohoku area into what it termed ‘a bridge between Japan and Asia’.

“This will be the beginning of a new story for Tohoku and Peach that has Sendai Airport as its axis," Peach CEO Shinichi Inoue said in a statement. "Tohoku has a wealth of appeal that has yet to become known, and it’s impossible to gauge the enormity of its potential demand. We hope to cultivate that potential demand and bring in more and more customers to Tohoku, both domestic and international, and contribute in our small way to invigorate the local economy, boost regional revitalization, and support the restoration of the region."

Peach currently operates bases at Okinawa Naha, Osaka Kansai, and Tokyo Narita. Aside from Sendai, Sapporo-Chitose Airport is also expected to be developed into a base during the course of Financial Year 2018 (i.e April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019).