[cwoodward]

In reply to: Hong Kong Airlines

Yes it is small when you consider that now 5 of the operating aircraft are freighters.

Of course there is still a push from the southern mainland provinces that want to be rid of Cathay hence Greater Bay Airlines which in their pre launch blurb were gong to be ‘twice the size of Cathay’…..they seem to have run out of both ambition and funding though.
I suspect that Beijing did not support the project given that Air China owns a chunk of Cathay and v.v. Also the partners equally own a large and growing freighter business

It would however I feel be healthy to have a second viable true Hong Kong airline if only to “keep the b——s (Cathay) honest” although several have tried and all have failed or been swallowed.

[cwoodward]

In reply to: Cathay Pacific “needs to boost staff morale”

Cathay of course needs to avoid risking a situation where it employs cabin crew from China who’s command of conversational English is not proficient enough to be able serve the majority of its passengers properly or worse becomes frustrated.

I have had a business in China for the past over 30 years and our more educated and senior staff speak English very well indeed however go along to a government office, a shop, a restaurant or fly internally with a mainland based airline and the standard of English (if any)is poor.

Possibly Cathay can tempt cabin crew from that fly internationally with Chinese airlines or maybe draw on some of Air China’s English speaking crew (Cathay owns a large chunk of the airline and trains some Air China crew) as well as the perhaps the easier option of more crew ex Singapore and Taiwan.

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[MarcusGB]

In reply to: A350’s tenth anniversary

I do enjoy the a350, but again it depends on the Airline, cabin and seat designs.

The new Air France cabin looks very smart and clever, privacy doors, if not a little clinical perhaps in colour?
on most A350’s, I do find the “Car seat belt” uncomfortable, as it locks and stops your normal movement even leaning forwards to pick something up, and it cuts into your shoulder.

My best experience was about 2018/19, had to choose China Airlines to Australia, as it was a last minute need to be in there for an invited ceremonial event. All Airlines were 3 x the normal price, but still at an amazing £1,800 return then, and plenty seats on China Airlines, but ex Amsterdam.

Their A350 Business class was simply beautiful, along with a deep comforting warm use of colours, and a more gentle yellowish table lamp, it felt like i was sitting in a lounge not on an aircraft.
I was very surprised to see so many of their A350s compared to other Airlines in TPE then, at least 15 i counted all incoming or outgoing.
With the incoming flight from Amsterdam an hr late, a mad dash and the door being closed behind me, It was wonderful to see only 6 people in the Sydney bound whole Business cabin!
That was a real treat to have no crowds or moving around, toilet anticipations, and a very personal cabin service.

I caught sight of their very pristine comfy Premium Economy in the cabin behind, which looked excellent, almost empty also.

Some photos on this review…

https://www.executivetraveller.com/china-airlines-airbus-a350-business-class-review-brisbane-taipei-london-gatwick-bne-tpe-lgw

I have also flown A350 Biz on SQ, Thai, AF with (the original design cabin and seats), but design of the best cabin and seat comfort was certainly China Airlines.
I would not be choosing an Airline that packed people in, or had 2-2-2 as a Biz Cabin.

Sadly KLM still have 2-2-2 on their 777 fleet. Swiss have 5 across, and many LH cabins, still 2-2-2.
Since Covid, i think Biz Cabins really have equaled that of First class now.
If you compare Thai 1st class, an A350 current Business cabin exceeds that.

Personally my expectations are for the 1-2-1 which the A350 has, with the added space of a large aircraft.

Again the Dreamliners are great, but only if 1-2-1 in a Business class cabin, and i prefer the room of the larger 787-9/10.

[MarcusGB]

In reply to: Turkish Airlines plans flights to Australia

Sydney has been in a downward spiral for many years now. I had lived n worked there and travel back to Oz a few times a year since.
Many friends and colleagues have moved away to Melbourne, or up to Queensland and around, to a better, less overpriced, congested life. Many European family Generations are gone from the City, pushed out by residence and shop space prices.Roads are clogged more tunnels go under and around, and the return of the trams has pedestrianised part of the centre.

Thai has started 2 x daily flights into MEL on A350’s, but only 1 x 773 !nto Sydney.
I see far less International traffic, or Airlines with once a day flights now rather than numerous, and the use of smaller Aircraft.

So many high rise apartments for residence or travellers, that when everyone comes out, the city has no space left anymore.
The “Australian” fusion foods have gone, and more traditional places pushed out, “China Town” is half the city now. There is not a blend of cultures that existed before. its is V expensive.

Melbourne is Less high rise, but sprawling suburbs full of flat buildings, full of character, cafe and food culture, arts, theatre, a more serious city.
(Moonie Ponds does exist, but sadly its most famous resident, Dame Edna Everage, has passed!)

There are better cities than Sydney these days to explore, so i am not surprised of the Airlines picking up on this.
MEL – SYD (i think) was the most busy Airline for a domestic route Worldwide?
Pre Covid, 4 domestic Airlines ran flights as often as every 15 mins between cities each, at peak times. It was a tough job to find the right airlines and not be boarding the flight 15 mins before or after the one you booked!
Gone are the days when the larger Aircraft would take more people less often, they are all 737 variants!
If MEL has lots of gates free it would be due to less Domestic flights, not just International Airlines.

Clever International Airlines would take in both cities as Emirates did, or going onto NZ, or on to Pacific destinations.
But they boxed in Air New Zealand, who are now beginning again to expand and thrive also.
Domestic Fares remain high priced, with few other options due to distance and no real rail links outside a city, or good Road options.

For sure, there needs to be a re-think about dispersing to other cities the International flights into Australia – and NZ or Onto the Pacific even, as they continue to return.

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[AndrewinHK]

In reply to: Why are AI still using Russian airspace but Vistara aren’t?

I assume it has something to do with SQ owning 49% of Vistara, and the board making a decision to align with most other international carriers and avoid Russian airspace for safety reasons, insurance and lease conditions likely are also a factor.

A side thought, as traffic volumes return to normal from China/India to Europe, one would have thought the EU will face more pressure from home carriers to do something about the competitive advantage Chinese/Indian carriers have by continuing to use Russian airspace, what could be done? Might be an interesting thread to prophesize. Banning airlines that overfly Russian airspace from landing in Europe? This would be a severe escalation for sure, but if tensions ratchet up and the EU carriers start to push the EC, anything is possible.

[FormerBA]

In reply to: Lufthansa Customer Relations

Lufthansa are correct that there is no compensation due. This only applies when cancellation occurs within two weeks of departure

But the real issue / problem here is how the booking was handled originally and which led to you cancelling the original booking. Once you cancelled and accepted a refund you absolved the LH and TK from having to provide a better solution.

Under EU 261 the carriers must reroute you in the same class and

1. As close to the original time of departure as possible or
2. At your convenience or
3. Offer a full refund.

Re routing does not require there to be a seat in the same same fare basis, only a seat in the correct cabin. This means that a revenue seat should have been booked.

I have had just this issue with Delta Airlines and booking to Sydney using points on China Airlines. The ticket was issued and China airlines then cancelled. Delta have rerouted me on DL via LAX from LHR.

Never allow a points booking to be refunded if you really want to travel. You must be re routed.

[anyonebutBAirways]

In reply to: THAI AIRWAYS REWARDFLIGHT TO BANGKOK AND EXTREME COST FOR EXTRA LUGGAGE

erm, that was to china where the oiece concept is used by most airlines, your reward flight is to thailand so again its NOT the same go figure 🤣

[cwoodward]

In reply to: GBA expand

I have not noticed any downgrade in CX and judging from other posts neither have most….what has been down graded please ?….on my 9 flights since November I have noticed nothing and it seems from other posts that 1st has gone up a notch. ( I have sat in the cabin this year but only enjoyed the J class service.
Although HKG was becoming steadily busier there were no significant traffic restrictions in place thus nothing stopping new players in the market due to runway or terminal restrictions. Of course as with any airport the best slots are taken first however HKG is fairer than most in this respect (details are online too long a piece to detail here)
The runway and terminal expansion is unlikely to be operating prior mid 2025
Andrew from what you mention above it seems that already the GBA forecast 4 class ‘better than CX’ model has been detached for a low-cost model. They of course also purchased the wrong aircraft with the Boeings costing around 12% per PAX per seat more to operate than the Airbus models but if now a low cost model they will likely just cram in the max number of seats. The Boeings are cheaper to purchase or lease of course.

Hong Kong Express is an established airline that is very well run and enjoys both a stable established route network (from Dragon Air and CX) and new routes that it is carving out plus of course the significant advantages of being a sibling of Cathay Pacific and with the backing of the Swire group and (if only temporarily) the Hong Kong government and not to forget the considerable indirect Beijing investment via the government owned Air China.
There are a lot more low cost airlines in Asia now and many are well established and formidable competitors for a new start-up stand alone competitor.
It looks to me that GBA are more likely to fail than to succeed but time as always will tell.

[AMcWhirter]

In reply to: Business Class Air Fares

Very valid Forum thread.

Issue with LHR-BKK is that there’s a capacity shortage. BA hasn’t returned with passenger flights and so there’s only Thai and Eva Air. The latter is capacity limited ex-LHR as it’s a fifth-freedom operator on LHR-BKK.

Last year I did post on Forum re the very high prices between the UK and Australia.

I mean between Spring and the Autumn SIA was charging between £9,000 and £12,000 for LHR-SYD return in business class. Similar high fares applied in the other classes. That period of the year would normally be considered low season for Australasia !

Checking the same fares in 2022 but starting from Sydney (rather than London) gave similar results. Indeed I discovered it was *slightly* less expensive to fly with ANA via HND than it was with SIA via SIN. Crazy really considering if anyone would be impacted by fuel prices it would be ANA.

So as Tim has noted above I believe it’s a combination of less available capacity, pent up consumer demand and airlines wanting to recoup losses during the pandemic.

With SIA being a sixth-freedom carrier there’s another factor. SIA carries huge numbers of travellers between Asia (including China) and Australia via SIN. (Europe-Australia is not so important a market for SIA as it once was) Now that China is opening up there will be many citizens there who will be booking international travel. This impacts of SIA’s prices.

Just now I checked SIA’s J fares for LHR-SYD-LHR in February and March and the prices are £9,000 to £10,000 (maybe higher still nearer Easter).

Those prices are more than twice the pre-pandemic levels for SIA.

I don’t believe fuel prices are the sole reason. I say that because airlines usually hedge their fuel prices and so it would depend on what sort of agreement they are locked into.

So more capacity is needed and it’s a pity TG has retired its A380s.

Conversely most A380 operators are reactivating their A380s to cope with demand in 2023.

As we have already reported both Etihad and Lufthansa are the latest to return some A380s to service this summer to meet demand.

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[Tom Otley]

In reply to: Identify the airline

China Airlines B777-3300ER – I’ve just discovered you can search Google by uploading an image.

Takes the fun out of things…. (Well, if it is one supplied by the airline. Sometimes I took pictures onboard and didn’t label them)

Thank you

[cybertravller]

In reply to: Identify the airline

The colour scheme makes me think China Airlines

[AMcWhirter]

In reply to: British Airways lacks widebody capacity

Indeed openfly.

Most airlines have reactivated some or all of their A380s.

Chief exceptions are MAS, Thai Airways and just recently China Southern.

Etihad will reactivate some A380s in 2023 as we reported on December 9.

[FormerBA]

In reply to: BA passenger flights have returned to Hong Kong

[postquote quote=1283210]

I did not fabricate or attempt to mislead in my post. I simply described what I saw and experienced when I was in transit at HKG. Describing it as a scene from a dystopian disaster movie was clearly hyperbole I’d accept, but it was how I felt at the time. I am not comfortable seeing people in full PPE particularly in an environment where I have little control or influence.

I’d have to accept that HKG does not have a zero covid policy but China does. In any event from a travellers perspective, HKG maintains a draconian, and medically pointless arrivals testing regime with a requirement to isolate. No matter how efficiently they might handle this, that is a fact. As a traveller, you therefore run a risk when entering HKG that you do not encounter anywhere else. The rest of world does not do this and has moved on thanks in large part to effective immunisation.

As I was not entering HKG I had not looked into obtaining insurance for doing so. Therefore I do not know if standard policies would cover travellers ( tourists). Most business traveller don’t need to think about this as their firms provide the cover

This was the last stop on a 23,000 mile journey involving 7 international airports and 4 airlines. Only Cathay insisted I wear a mask throughout the flight, going as far as to remind me after the meal. (they did not attempt this ex HKG) QF encouraged it but did not enforce. Nowhere did I see staff in full PPE other than Hong Kong. Nowhere had on arrival testing as in HKG or the miles of Tensa barriers that were evident. The last time I saw such facilities was when boarding the Queen Mary 2 at Southampton in April, the last passengers who did so

Only Hong Kong and Saigon had shops that were closed and unused. Sydney had a mcDonalds outlet which was closed.

Expressing an opinion on something that is factual accurate is not fabrication. It is however very difficult to separate the testing regime from the political regime, as the very existence of arrival testing is a matter of government policy and not medical necessity.

Any damage my comments may have caused ( and I don’t believe I have that much influence) is solely due to the policies and procedures that I commented on, not my comments per se.

I look forward to returning to HKG when arrival testing and the risks of isolation have finally been consigned to history.

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[x2000traveller]

In reply to: Business Class catering on short haul flights within europe.

J class intra-Europe seems mostly to be about connections, more space and first off the aircraft (if that’s what you are interested in). Catering doesn’t seem to be rated that highly by many passengers these days (indeed, quite a few pass on the meal offer in my experience), so airlines put less effort into it. As you have found out. However, even I was somewhat appalled to be served tea in a paper cup rather than a china one in Club Europea on what was formerly ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’ last month!

As many of you know I do enjoy the analytics of identifying which routes airlines evaluate and what they eventually choose – especially from London where slots are supposedly limited, a recent example being what Virgin Atlantic might chose now that they are joining Skyteam and have also obtained slots from KLM.

Over the years I have started a few discussions looking at what long haul routes BA might examine, but not actually had one of these in a while with Covid etc, so think now is the time to start another one!

In the last years there have been many major developments impacting BA – Brexit, Covid – resulting in the total withdrawal of their 747 fleet and of course many markets closed due to travel restrictions (Asia), War in Ukraine, impacting on flying over Russia, and in recent months market turmoil in the Uk, much reducing the value of the Pound and also reduced disposable income for many.

So where now that things are (fingers crossed) opening up do you think BA would be wise to be looking at from either LHR or LGW? Where are the opportunities for current market and the next 2-3 years?

Routes from the regions are very, very unlikely so please keep your suggestions to London.

Of course many routes have stopped – but could some come back? Suspended routes include Osaka, Seoul, KL, Muscat, Durban, Abu Dhabi and Damman.

Indeed with Brexit (not making a political point, but now not being able to recruit from a wider labour market, and IMO reckless job losses when Covid arrived and according to some seen as not being a desirable employer, with BA still being short staffed, CAN they actually really expand?

For example I was told by a savvy airline expert recently that BA does actually fly to Bangkok these days, but cargo only in the hold as they do not have the 14-16 crew needed to operate each wide-bodied flight.

And now that the Pound is much weaker versus the US Dollar, how will this impact on the allocation of aircraft, routes and crew? For example I see much less Orlando and Las Vegas flights, which are mainly UK point of sale markets.

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts to get the discussion started:-

US

Kansas (mooted before and I found the analytics very persuasive) – 4 x 788 per week ex LHR
Indianapolis – officially mentioned by BA before Covid – 4 x 788 per week ex LHR
Outside bets – St Louis (former BCal/TWA/AA route) or Cincinatti (Delta flew this years ago from LGW I recall and a pharmaceutical centre).

longer shot – Albuquerque, NM

Central/South America/Caribbean

A big recent development is that the UK no longer needs nationals of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia to have a visa to enter the UK. This I think will really make a difference to demand. And given IMO a market which can support both Avianca and BA think Bogota is low hanging fruit.

Also pre-pandemic BA had started a route using 772 to Lima from LGW. Personally I think that was a lot of capacity and from the wrong airport, so I think there should be a tag flight (I know some of you do not get the benefits of these flights!). I suggest a LHR-Bogota-Lima -Bogota-LHR flight using 3 class 772 and crew resting in BOG – perhaps starting 3-4 times a week. At least try this and see how the markets prosper – perhaps Lima can have its own nonstop again after all.

Ecuador I do not think can justify a route yet and so Iberia can cover that, but I do think BOG and LIM can do very well for business, leisure and VFR traffic.

Panama City I have always mentioned. At least 4 weekly 788.

Brazil I do not think BA will go further into as I think Virgin will strike a deal with Latam.

BA have already announced new routes to Guyana and Aruba from LGW, but given many Caribbean currencies are pegged to the USD do not see much additional capacity being on offer, and of anything reductions, and allocating the resources to cheaper leisure markets.

Africa

I really think BA have missed many opportunities here, and think overall they will not give this continent much attention, but with Rwandair thinking to join Oneworld, a route their to connect to their growing hub, or at least a code-share, will be a great opportunity to benefit from their network in East, Central and Southern Africa.

I saw that BA is reducing Nairobi from 772 to 788 and wonder with VS joining Skyteam BA are anticipating more co-operation between VS and Kenya Airways.

But in the recent Virgin route thread a poster I always find insightful suggested Kinshasa, having seen substantial traffic from the UK there, so given that a few years ago BA had a very profitable route into Luanda, but suspended this when the oil price crashed, I think a triangle route could be very rewarding indeed:-

LHR-Luanda -Kinshasa-LHR 772 3x weekly.

Sharm-el Sheikh – Years ago BA operated 772 from LGW there – with beach holidays in the Americas becoming arguably more expensive, could this be a worth looking at reviving?

Asia

Asia is hard to plan for with some markets needing to fly over Russia and of course China is not very open yet. I see VS could tap into some markets here in conjunction with Skyteam partners, but do think BA should go back to BKK and also try a Phuket route. These markets would capture a premium leisure perhaps finding the Caribbean or Indian Ocean too expensive now. I think direct flights would prosper as I think many do not want to go via the Gulf on QR or EK etc.

So BKK daily with 789 and Phuket 3 x weekly on 788.
I hope KUL also comes back.

Another factor not covered much above is VFR traffic – Virgin have really tapped into Pakistan and doing very well there. Are there other markets you think should be tapped into?

I look forward to your thoughts on which routes you think could be lucrative or at least worth evaluating, and of course any insight or believable rumours!

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