iscover
Cathay Pacific has commenced a second Boeing 777-300ER rotation to Sydney.
Flight CX101 from Hong Kong, operated by B-KQR, arrived at Sydney a little after 1030 local time on Friday.
The reciprocal CX100 took off from the NSW capital just past 1600.
Upgauging a second of four daily Cathay flights between Hong Kong and Sydney from the Airbus A330-300 to the 777-300ER represents an eight per cent increase in capacity.
“Having two 777-300ER flights will help cater to the increasing demand from our passengers wanting the best morning or night connections to our large network, which includes our newest destinations Manchester, Zurich, Boston, Dusseldorf and soon Madrid,” Cathay Pacific general manager for Southwest Pacific Nelson Chin said in a statement.
“It also serves those who simply wish to make the most of a whole day’s work or play in Hong Kong.”
Cathay’s three-class Boeing 777-300ERs have 340 seats (40 business, 32 premium economy, 268 economy), compared with either 242 seats (39 business, 28 premium economy, 175 economy) or 251 seats (39 business, 21 premium economy, 191 economy) on the A330-300s used to serve Australia.
The oneworld alliance member switched one of its four Sydney services to the 777-300ER in December 2014.
The airline flies 74 times a week to Australia and has utilised the full amount of available frequencies to the country’s four major gateways – Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney – for Hong Kong-designated carriers.
Therefore, any increase in capacity will have to come through larger aircraft and not additional flights.
Dane
says:Do you have to get regulatory approval to change aircraft on a route? Can you start a service with a 737 one day and put an A380 on that route the next day?
Ben De Rover
says:…well that depends on how big your route is.
Rhino
says:There’s nothing like a big route…
Anonymous Smith
says:They have to meet a quota for the number of passengers on the route. There is an upper and lower variable figure that they have to offer that number of seats on. E.g. min. 1,000 (max 1,5000) seats on the YSSY – VHHH route each day.
Aden O'keefe-Buckton
says:Great! Now there should be an A330 free to start CBR-HKG route.
Jimmy Anderson
says:I think CBR is unlikely, with such a small population. But I think they could consider HKG – DRW – CNS – HKG just like SilkAir for its Singapore route.
Matt Barr
says:@Rhino – Thank you needed that 😉
David Fix
says:I think the 777 is better than the boring A330
Myles Dobinson
says:They already undertake a BNE – CNS route with a330 would be nice if a 777 instead and straight through.
Jimmy Anderson
says:Think the 777 is appropriate for this route given that Virgin Atlantic had suspended its daily SYD – HKG route last year (6 – 7 daily flights between SYD and HKG last year) and Qantas is only putting on an additional 4 weekly flights per week; so the number of seats offered works out to be lower or the same as last year.
Personally, Qantas needs to work out its Asia strategy if it was to compete with Cathay Pacific. They need some sort of linkage between HKG > Asian or European cities and its flights to/from Australia.
I think a 777 is not viable at this stage for the Hong Kong – Cairns – Brisbane v.v. route (although maybe during peak times it may be ok). But personally, I think there’s not enough patronage between Cairns – Hong Kong sector. With Hong Kong Airlines entering the market in January, as well as the entrance of Philippine Airlines (Manila), SilkAir (Singapore); Jetstar (Denpasar Bali), it’s going to hard to justify a 777.