News
Hainan Airlines to begin A350 flights on Saturday
October 12th 2018
Hainan Airlines has said its first A350-900 would operate a test flight this Friday, before commencing commercial operations on the following day on the Beijing-Hongqiao and Beijing-Guangzhou trunk routes. Read More »
According to GDS data, Hainan Airlines’ A350-900s are configured with 33 staggered business class and 292 economy class seats.
Separately, several industry sources understand Hainan Airlines’ Hong Kong subsidiary, full-service Hong Kong Airlines, will defer delivery of four A350-900s from this year to 2019, or later, owing to cash flow pressures. Hong Kong Airlines has 38 aircraft in its fleet, twelve short of a previously flagged target of 50 aircraft by year-end.
The HNA Group affiliate had said it would launch services from its Hong Kong base to London and New York this year. These plans are being delayed.
“We are still exploring the possibility of New York,” a Hong Kong Airlines representative told the South China Morning Post. “The destinations we mentioned previously are still a work in progress. The team are going through all the variables. We have five A350s at the moment, so we have to plan and cherry-pick which are the best to go to.”
Hong Kong Airlines added flights to Auckland, Cairns and the Gold Coast in 2016, followed by Vancouver and Los Angeles last year and San Francisco and Moscow this year. The airline is competing head-to-head with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways.
Last month, Orient Aviation reported Hong Kong Airlines would terminate its three times a week Hong Kong-Moscow Vnukovo A330-300 flights from October 19, less than five months after the route was launched.
Hong Kong Airlines launched the route to coincide with the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and was hoping it would generate enough loads and revenue to sustain a year-round service. Evidently, that was not the case.
At Hainan Airlines, the carrier has reduced frequencies on several long-haul routes launched in the last 18 months, including Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh, Beijing-Tijuana-Mexico City, Beijing-Boston, Beijing-Calgary, Beijing-Las Vegas and Beijing-Seattle.
