[AMcWhirter]

Slots at London Heathrow regularly change hands.

Sometimes if an airline finds it cannot use all the slots it will lease them to another carrier.

Airlines are reluctant to sell them outright (unless they are really cash-strapped). I mean some years ago we reported on Kenya Airways selling its one and only Heathrow slot (which it owned at that time) to Oman Air for US$75 million.

Now today slot-coordinator ACL has updated its list to show that Cathay Pacific plans, for the coming winter season, to lease a number of Heathrow slots to Emirates.

If the slot swap is approved it’s likely Emirates will boost Heathrow services this winter.

See the entries in the form below.

Completed Slot Trades

3 users thanked author for this post.

cwoodward, tomyam42, AndrewinHK

[christ]

I thought Cathay for Heathrow was back up to its pre – Covid frequency (i.e. 5 flights a day) – does this mean it is reducing winter flights as it still shows 5 a day?

If Cathay can run 5 flights a day, I wish BA would bring back the A380 v the 787 (though luckily HK still has one flight with the A350). Probably not much chance as Singapore seems to be the priority.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello christ.

Currently Cathay Pacific flies x5 out of Heathrow but from the winter it will be x4.

Flights CX 239 and CX 256 have been removed from the inventory (Cathaypacific.com) for Cathay’s winter LHR-HKG-LHR non-stop schedule.

Once the slot transfer has been approved (and the parking/passenger handling space within the LHR terminal has been found) I expect we shall hear Emirates announcing an increase in its LHR-DXB-LHR flying schedule for this winter.

[Woodpecker]

CX reducing its LHR frequency from five to four daily comes as a surprise, I wonder if some more light can be shed on it.

Similar to Christ, I was expecting CX to ramp it up with an additional flight either to LHR or LGW, to actually lease out an unutilized LHR slot implies that CX isn’t too optimistic about winter load factors? Does BA bringing back the A380 from this October have anything to do with this as both airlines code share on the route?

[CathayLoyalist2]

Bang goes in lingering hope of Asia Miles tickets for Christmas!!. Sounds somewhat contradictory to the upbeat message from the CEO recently on ramping up schedules

[christ]

It seems that the change is not every day as some days there are 4 and others are 5. As an example, i see 256 on 4 Feb departing at 2015.

It is still a surprising move as i would have thought it was a core route – however i do see that prices are going down for business and are not that far off of BA on certain dates. Cathay are generally c. HKD 45k return. BA is about HKD 38k.

I stand corrected – both BA flights seem to be on a 787 for the winter – i am not sure if that is one with club suites but the one i came back on earlier this year was the old club world and was awful v the a350!

Qatar seem to be all over the place with pricing from HK to London and with the cheapest being about HKD 29k but at times being well above Cathay and BA! I am still hoping to get on the A380 on the last leg but the cheaper flights are usually to LGW (allbeit with the suites).

[AMcWhirter]

From November, when checking Cathaypacific.com, x4 LHR-HKG non-stops are displayed.

But checking December I now notice that, on a few dates, Cathay is displaying x5 flights (although schedules are subject to change).

According to the ACI slot-transfer form Cathay wants to transfer a number a LHR slots to Emirates for the coming winter season.

I wasn’t aware that BA was deploying its A380 LHR-HKG this winter.

[christ]

@CathayLoyalist2 – at least you have some chance with Asia miles! From my friends, i understand Asia miles has reasonable availability v other programmes.

BA is near impossible with Avios for BA on the HK route in business or first (and understandably Cathay but there are sometimes Manchester flights).

Using avios from HK on business within Asia on Cathay at last minute usually is reasonable and so i imagine with Asia miles that you have amazing availability.

[christ]

Alex – sorry i was saying i wish it would return the A380!

The random dates i searched there were quite a few with 5 – as you say maybe this will change! It would still be good to understand the rationale. The more competition on the route, the better!

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

Just to clarify.

Cathay is leasing 10 slots (five departure and arrival slots) to Emirates during the winter season.

So it means that on two days a week Cathay could, and probably will if there’s the demand, operate five flights ex-LHR.

For its part Emirates will be able to increase its ex-LHR schedule from six daily to up to seven daily (the seventh flight will not operate on two days a week).

1 user thanked author for this post.

christ

[AndrewinHK]

CX had restored LHR frequencies ahead of others, they are still short on staff, and the winter season, restarting routes to maintain market share when you have intensifying regional rivalry with SQ and United ramping up on transpacific, the yield on transpacific is incredible at the moment, take a look for J seats between JFK-PVG, they certainly made my eyes water. Given VS exited HK and BA have less capacity but the same frequencies, mean CX isn’t ceding much share from pre covid levels. Good for LHR, I assume EK will roster another 380, and good for CX if you can deploy more capacity on the transpacific and capitalise on the $$$.

1 user thanked author for this post.

christ

[cwoodward]

This short term lease of currently unrequired spots looks to be a sensible proactive decision by Cathay management.

[MarkivJ]

Truth is as long as the MEB3 are around, it’ll be hard for other Asian airlines to compete profitably.

[cwoodward]

I take your point although several including Cathay-Singapore-JAL and several other smaller players seem to be doing a reasonable job to date and I see no reason why that would not continue.

[AndrewinHK]

The transpacific routes, JFK-PVG, CX is charging $85,000 hkd in J, I think this is a simple yield management situation. LHR has outsized capacity relative to the rest of the long haul CX network, winter has less demand, and they can make a pretty penny leasing the slots to EK. CX will always have a strong market to Europe, many have no interest in one stop itinerary’s, and the ME3 aren’t actually that prolific in HK, QR has 2x daily and codeshares with CX, EY hasn’t returned, and EK only operate one daily that is direct to DXB, with the other operating via BKK.

[Author]

Posts