Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Shanghai

CX won rights to BJS and PVG right? what ever happened to PVG? any rumours? why launch only BJS now? no planes?

My guess is that CX is currently testing "water" for its HKG-Beijing route. The HK-China route has always been dominated by DragonAir and the Chinese airlines.

From what I heard from the travel agents, it seems that the Chinese people are pretty proud of their Chinese airlines (e.g. China Eastern, China Southern) and would try to fly with them.

CX being a relatively new player to the Chinese market may want to adopt a strategy to test the demand.

I sincerely hope that they can fly the HKG-PVG route real soon!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hclee01:

From what I heard from the travel agents, it seems that the Chinese people are pretty proud of their Chinese airlines (e.g. China Eastern, China Southern) and would try to fly with them.
</font>

What proportion of mainland Chinese fliers think like that, I wonder. Dragonair seems to have no problems selling seats on their HK-mainland flights.

Okay, as far as I know Cathay Pacific is by the far the better airline when compared to the other Chinese airlines. Could somebody please tell me why CX left the Chinese many years back? Is it because of rights? or just a lack of demand?

CX is the best airline in the world. You cannot draw a direct comparison between CX and the Mainland Chinese airlines - just simply not possible. I hope you know for the obvious reasons. If not, try it and then tell us what you think.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Odin:
Could somebody please tell me why CX left the Chinese many years back? Is it because of rights? or just a lack of demand?</font>

Mao Zedong, communist, Cultural Revolution,, closed country, prohibit travel...

By the time China reopens itself in the very late 70's, CX already has extensive business in the HKG-TPE route. And neither side of the Taiwan Strait at that time will allow the same airline to operate to both sides.

There were some exceptions, though. For example, Japan Asia is formed specifically to operate between Japan and Taiwan, but as a seperate entity to JAL.

Only recently are rules relaxed.

[This message has been edited by rkkwan (edited Dec 18, 2003).]

I would hazard a guess that the mainland tour groups choose their package tours based on price and price alone, regardless of who they fly with.

Here is the email response from CX:

Dear Mr. XXX,

I refer to your message to us on December 17, and wish to advise that Cathay Pacific hopes to commence services from Hong Kong to Shanghai as soon as possible pending the approval of the relevant authorities.

Thank you for your interest in Cathay Pacific.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Yih
General Manager - Customer Relations
Cathay Pacific Airways, Kong Kong