[christ]

I need to get a one way flight back from Japan to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Airlines is less than half of Cathay or JAL (JAL being the most expensive) for business and has a good late night flight departure of c. 9pm.

Has anyone experienced Hong Kong Airlines? It is on the A330 with flat beds. I have read some good reviews but they are all pre-Covid.

Or am i best to stick with my one world loyalty (allbeit being BA Gold, you get such few air miles crediting JAL and Cathay flights, it makes little difference for miles and i don’t need any more tier points).

Many thanks

[cwoodward]

I dont know first hand if they are any good but the airline has never made a profit and was a skeleton of an airline until about 4 months ago with if I recall correctly about 5 aircraft (other than a couple of leased freighters) in use and most staff and pilots dismissed a couple of years back.
They are running 10 aging A320s and have a parked fleet of even older A330 only 2 of which are operating along with 5 leased A330 freighters
Reviews have been poor or just OK
I read that borrowed funds from the borrowed funds of its insolvent parent have been injected to keep it going.

They had the ability to challenge Cathay at one point but because of huge debts were prevented by the HK regulator from expanding.
The mainland parent company is a large operator of several airlines but has billions of debt which it can never I am told repay.

Perhaps give it a few months more before you give them a try – if they are still operating which is not a given.

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christ

[christ]

I have braved booking the flight and so hopefully it will not go bankrupt in the next few weeks. It is on the A330 and the fare for business was good value and so I will take my chance.

I think they have about 35 fleet and operating about 20 and so sounds a tiny operation! However I think they are operating most of their A330s (10 out of 12) which is positive. However, I dread to think what will happen if they need to replace a plane etc.

I will report back if i make the flight! Starting with low expectations may help!

[AndrewRuck]

Thank you for providing additional information about Hong Kong Airlines.

[cwoodward]

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.

[Woodpecker]

Cwoodward above is absolutely correct when he says several have tried & failed. A decade or so back, Jetstar tried to register as a HKG based airline but failed to get regulatory approval, prior to that Oasis Airlines collapsed about a year after being touted as a hybrid alternative to CX.

Greater Bay Airlines doesn’t seem to have the expected political backing one assumed it would get, and its inauguration in the midst of covid was not exactly the best timing. I suspect they targeted the routes of Cathay Dragoon, but with a handful of aircraft it’s David vs Goliath. As for Hong Kong Airlines, it is common knowledge that it’s owners are cash strapped, so if Christ does make it back from Japan he should be smiling.

[TupeloKid]

I’ve flown Hong Kong Airlines a few times. They do what it says on the tin: no problems.

[cwoodward]

The airline has also 2 X leased A350-900’s in storage and 1 of these was being yesterday at Alice springs in Australia ‘exercised’ one presumes prior to returning to service in the near future.
The airline is said to also have ‘new investors’ but who these investors are seems very difficult to ascertain.

[Author]

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