Air New Zealand will end its services between Hong Kong and London and will enter into a new strategic alliance with Cathay Pacific (CX).
The airline announced today it will cease flights between Hong Kong and London from March 4 next year as part of its bid to return its international network to profitability.
Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand’s CEO, said a comprehensive review of the route indicated that it would not become profitable in the foreseeable future. He added that cutting the service would enable more capacity to be redeployed onto the popular North American destinations of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The airline also announced that it had entered into an agreement with CX as part of its strategy to implement an alliance-based network with a Pacific Rim focus. “We wanted to strengthen our presence in Hong Kong which is an important market and vital gateway into Mainland China for Air New Zealand,” explained Fyfe.
The agreement sees both carriers continue to operate the same frequency between Auckland and Hong Kong while introducing code shares on each other’s flights.
Air New Zealand operates daily flights between the two cities, while Cathay offers daily flights year round and has previously upped this to double daily in the peak period between December 2 and March 1.
Air New Zealand said that the code sharing would offer travellers more routing choices, with improved connectivity to destinations in Asia via Hong Kong.
Examples of improved itineraries are:
From Auckland to Beijing (PEK):
From Auckland to Chennai:
This move by Air New Zealand follows the dropping of its Beijing service in June (see here).
For more information, visit www.airnewzealand.com
Nicholas Olczak
