News
Cathay plans Melbourne A350 service, following THAI and SIA
September 9th 2016
Thai Airways International (THAI) was the first to announce the A350 on its double daily Bangkok-Melbourne route, from September 16, after it received its first A350, christened ‘Wichian Buri’. Read More » THAI will receive its second A350 at the end of the month and be ready to fly its second daily service to Melbourne from October 1.
Shortly after THAI announced its A350 Melbourne destination, Singapore Airlines beat its Star Alliance fellow to the punch by deploying one of its own A350s on the Singapore-Melbourne route in August, albeit for less than a month.
This week, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways followed suit. The Swire carrier said it would replace the A330-300 on one of its Melbourne rotations with the A350, from February 1. A month later, it will replace another A330 with the B777-300ER. The new fleeting will result in a 16% capacity increase on the route, considered to be a likely defensive move against Virgin Australia. The Brisbane headquartered carrier is launching flights to Hong Kong and Beijing next June, in cooperation with its new Mainland equity partner, the HNA Group.
Cathay also has signed for 26 of the larger A350-1000, which are due to arrive from 2018 to 2020. Last week, the Hong Kong-based carrier launched the -900 on services to Dusseldorf and London’s Gatwick. Auckland, Paris and Rome will be serviced by the A350 by year-end, Cathay CEO, Ivan Chu, said.
The A350 is proving a hit with Asia-Pacific carriers. More than a third of the orders of the aircraft type have been placed by airline customers in the region.
