As hundreds of airlines from around the world gather in Barcelona for World Routes 2017, Routesonline can reveal the top international routes by passenger numbers.
Honk Kong-based regional carrier Cathay Dragon is poised to expand its operations in the region after signing an agreement for 32 Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is to expand its route network and increase its fleet of Airbus A350-900 aircraft as it grapples with "intense competition", particularly on international routes to and from China.
The huge surge in demand for flights across Asia is placing severe constraints on capacity. Ahead of his participation at Routes Asia HKIA director C K Ng outlines how he is aiming to ensure the airport keeps pace including its new £15bn third runway.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the new service will operate for a three month period between December 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018 and will complement Cathay Pacific’s current seasonal double daily flights to Auckland as well as strategic partner Air New Zealand’s daily service between Hong Kong and Auckland.
Cathay Pacific will offer a four times weekly service between its Hong Kong International Airport hub and Barcelona from July 2, 2017, subject to final government approval, continuing through the peak travel months until October 27, 2017. This will be the first ever non-stop offering between Hong Kong and Barcelona.
The carrier, part of the HNA Group, will offer a daily flight between Hong Kong and Vancouver from June 30, 2017, initially using a 283-seat Airbus A330-200 but likely to be switched to the A350-900 once the first of its aircraft are delivered towards the end of next year.
There has been a steady increase year-on-year in the number of Hong Kong and China travellers visiting New Zealand. According to official figures from Statistics New Zealand, as of March 2016, the total number of visitors from Hong Kong and China were up 19.1 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively.
Tokyo will be Hong Kong Airlines’ seventh destination in Japan and will complement its existing twice daily flights to Routes Asia 2017 host city, Okinawa, daily flight to Okayama, five times weekly service to Sapporo, three times weekly service to Kagoshima and twice weekly flights to Miyazaki and Kumamoto.
The return of the Hong Kong – Phnom Penh operation will place Hong Kong Airlines in competition with Dragonair, which will soon be renamed Cathay Dragon to emphasise its relationship with Hong Kong’s largest air carrier, Cathay Pacific. It also offers flights between Hong Kong and Siem Reap in Cambodia, a market that HK Express introduced in September 2015.
Since Dragonair became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific in 2006, it has added 23 new destinations and the number of passengers travelling across both carriers has grown five times to more than seven million in 2015. The combined annual passenger number of the two airlines grew from 22 million to more than 34 million last year.
The A350 will primarily be deployed on the airline's long-haul routes to Europe, Australia and the United States, enabling China Airlines to offer its passengers non-stop service on ultra-long routes. However, it will initially operate in local markets for crew familiarisation.
Cathay Pacific is already the largest operator in the Hong Kong – London market by capacity, according to data from schedules provider, OAG. The airline has a 58.7 per cent share of the available non-stop capacity in this market ahead of British Airways (29.9 per cent share) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (11.4 per cent share).
Australian carrier, Qantas Airways has confirmed it will boost its schedules on flights to Hong Kong and Singapore from next month to meet growing demand from both business and leisure carriers into these key international markets. The new flights will be introduced on the Sydney - Hong Kong and Perth - Singapore routes and will be facilitated by furthering its strategy on fleet utilisation.
The growth brings Dragonair’s weekly schedule between Hong Kong and Shanghai Hongqiao to nine return flights and alongside its 13 times daily link between Hong Kong and Shanghai Pudong will mean it will offer 100 weekly flights between the two major Asian cities.
Qatar Airways next year celebrates the tenth anniversary of its debut in the Hong Kong market having first launched flights from Doha in March 2006. The airline previously served the Doha – Hong Kong route on a twice daily basis introducing a second rotation in December 2011 and second daily service in September 2012, but scaled-back its own operations in 2014 at the time of Cathay Pacific’s entry to the market.
With effect from October 26, 2015, Qantas will operate an additional four Sydney-Hong Kong services each week, on top of the current daily services available from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Meanwhile, services between Sydney and Manila will increase from four to five per week between early December 2015 and late March 2016 to offer more capacity during the peak holiday season.
Although not formally confirmed by the airline, Cathay Pacific plans to offer a four times weekly link between Hong Kong International Airport and Madrid’s Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport from June 2, 2016 and will be flown using a three-class Boeing 777-300ER.
The return to Shanghai highlights the continued importance of the Chinese market to the leading European carriers and the high value attached to its outbound market in particular. The airline previously served the Chinese city between April 2004 and January 2007 but stopped the flight as part of the redimensioning of the airline’s long-haul fleet and the decommissioning of its Airbus A330 and A340 long-haul fleets.
AirBridgeCargo’s new link to Singapore establishes the first dedicated freight link between Changi International Airport and the Russian capital and will further strengthen the Asian gateway’s connectivity to Russia and beyond. The airline is offering a twice weekly service on the Moscow – Singapore – Hong Kong – Moscow routing using a Boeing 747-8F.
What are the world's longest scheduled air routes by distance and block time? As Emirates Airline reveals plans to launch a Dubai - Panama City route in February 2016, Routesonline investigates.
