Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Cathay should add EWR-HKG-EWR route

I must say, I am a little dumbfounded why Cathay doesn't consider adding the EWR-HKG-EWR route. I understand most Chinese people live in NYC and it seems like JFK is the logical choice.

But, most of the higher cliente (the target group for Cathay Pacific) resides in the suburban area outside of NYC, and mostly in NJ (easy access to EWR.) I personally move out of NYC myself and reside in rural NJ. People like us may work in NYC, but we despise traveling through NYC and going all the way out to JFK. Also, everyone I talked to that goes to HKG on a regular basis chooses Continental over Cathay is purely based on airport: Continental flies out of EWR, Cathay flies out of JFK.

I have written about this to Cathay twice and got the standard "thank you for your suggestion" reply. I'm really thinking Cathay North America office drop the ball here. Many foreign nations have flights out of both JFK and EWR (say India), and instead of competing off each other they actually complement off each other. JFK flights get the people living in Brooklyn/Queens, while EWR flights gets all the people in NJ/eastern PA and people in Manhattan.

Cathay is losing too much would-be clients to Continental because they don't invest in EWR.

My wish list would be the following:

HKG - DME/SVO (Moscow) with Cathay aircraft and staff instead of the dubious Aeroflot codeshare.

HKG - PEK/PVG - ICN with fifth freedom rights at Beijing and/or Shanghai

HKG - DXB extended to Iran, i.e Teheran (don't ask me the airport code ;))

I believe CX already did all the math and concluded to stay this way, or they should have added EWR long time back. Multiple flights at one airport must cost much less than a few flights at spreaded airports. Employees, counters, offices, lounges, etc. Even all CX cargo flights go JFK. Also it is convenient and makes us flexible to have multiple flights at one airport with different timings. I think moving everything to EWR will lose more than stay in JFK. There will be some people who choose to take CX over CO because of the preference of JFK.

I know how painful it is to get to JFK from NJ, but CX won't come to EWR unless they get to have 4-5 daily flights to NYC area. Asian carriers have only 1-2 daily flights a day, so it costs too much to separate airports. CX has 3, so there's some flexibility going on.

CX chose JFK only because it is Oneworld partner, AA's main hub. As EWR has practicularly no presence with AA, its only logical for CX to serve JFK.

I must say, I am a little dumbfounded why Cathay doesn't consider adding the EWR-HKG-EWR route. I understand most Chinese people live in NYC and it seems like JFK is the logical choice.

But, most of the higher cliente (the target group for Cathay Pacific) resides in the suburban area outside of NYC, and mostly in NJ (easy access to EWR.) I personally move out of NYC myself and reside in rural NJ. People like us may work in NYC, but we despise traveling through NYC and going all the way out to JFK. Also, everyone I talked to that goes to HKG on a regular basis chooses Continental over Cathay is purely based on airport: Continental flies out of EWR, Cathay flies out of JFK.

I have written about this to Cathay twice and got the standard "thank you for your suggestion" reply. I'm really thinking Cathay North America office drop the ball here. Many foreign nations have flights out of both JFK and EWR (say India), and instead of competing off each other they actually complement off each other. JFK flights get the people living in Brooklyn/Queens, while EWR flights gets all the people in NJ/eastern PA and people in Manhattan.

Cathay is losing too much would-be clients to Continental because they don't invest in EWR.

I live on Long Island and like to consider myself "higher cliente". ;)
I will fly out of EWR only when I have no choice. I really like the CX flights out of JFK.

But, most of the higher cliente (the target group for Cathay Pacific) resides in the suburban area outside of NYC, and mostly in NJ (easy access to EWR.)




:confused:

Mostly in NJ? Have you forgotten about Westchester county and Fairfield county don't count, much less Manhattan?

I must say, I am a little dumbfounded why Cathay doesn't consider adding the EWR-HKG-EWR route. I understand most Chinese people live in NYC and it seems like JFK is the logical choice.

But, most of the higher cliente (the target group for Cathay Pacific) resides in the suburban area outside of NYC, and mostly in NJ (easy access to EWR.) I personally move out of NYC myself and reside in rural NJ. People like us may work in NYC, but we despise traveling through NYC and going all the way out to JFK. Also, everyone I talked to that goes to HKG on a regular basis chooses Continental over Cathay is purely based on airport: Continental flies out of EWR, Cathay flies out of JFK.

I have written about this to Cathay twice and got the standard "thank you for your suggestion" reply. I'm really thinking Cathay North America office drop the ball here. Many foreign nations have flights out of both JFK and EWR (say India), and instead of competing off each other they actually complement off each other. JFK flights get the people living in Brooklyn/Queens, while EWR flights gets all the people in NJ/eastern PA and people in Manhattan.

Cathay is losing too much would-be clients to Continental because they don't invest in EWR.

I think you're assuming here also that everyone on that flight lives in the US. I might add that probably none of the people flying to NY for business care much about visiting New Jersey. In the haydays of 2007 I could walk around the J cabin on CX830 back when it was A340-600 and often would see multiple people I knew all who lived in HK, usually lawyers or bankers flying to see clients, who in turn are all based either in midtown and downtown. It's pretty much a tenet of living in Asia as an expat - we go to the US more to see clients than they come to visit us.

JFK has the helicopter to midtown so you can circumvent traffic at bad times, and it also has BA connections to LHR and AA flights to everywhere. Yea, it really stinks as an airport but I must say I don't think it's as big as a deal as you think it is.

JFK flights get the people living in Brooklyn/Queens, while EWR flights gets all the people in NJ/eastern PA and people in Manhattan.

JFK gets this at least this one Manhattan person. Avoid EWR at all costs.

I might add that probably none of the people flying to NY for business care much about visiting New Jersey.

:D:D:D Most Americans don't care much about visiting New Jersey either.

EWR is the bigger O&D airport of the NYC area, but CX wants and needs USA connecting traffic to make the NYC flights work, so JFK is the smarter choice.

:D:D:D Most Americans don't care much about visiting New Jersey either.

You know why New Yorkers are always in such a bad mood?


Cause the light at the end of there tunnel is Newark. :D:D:D

EWR would be a good choice if I had the desire to "flyin" just to see a Devil's games, but most of the time I connect onward to South Florida so JFK is the logical choice for AA, DL or even Jet Blue. BA has a decent lounge for CX so there is not need to spend a ton of money in setting up a good operation across the Hudson.;)

You know why New Yorkers are always in such a bad mood?


Cause the light at the end of there tunnel is Newark. :D:D:D

Are "Newarkers" always in good mood because the end of the tunnel is New York?:D:D:D

I think SQ flies to both JFK and EWR. Can CX operate in both airports?

Can they use CO's lounge (like KA using BR's in TPE)?

CX chose JFK only because it is Oneworld partner, AA's main hub. As EWR has practicularly no presence with AA, its only logical for CX to serve JFK.

Actually JFK is not a hub for AA (AA hubs are ORD, MIA, DFW and SJU) however AA does have a major presence at JFK, including significant flights from the Caribbean and American Eagle service from a number of connecting points in the Northeast.

That said, CX uses the BA terminal (not AA) so connecting traffic is not the only consideration. Also most of the major European carriers (BA, VS, LH, AF, AZ, LX, TP) plus SQ and AI serve both. At CX 3x per day to NYC, EWR does seem to have some merit, particularly since they could use BA staff at EWR as they do at JFK.

I think more to the point is CX is the only carrier with nonstop JFK-HKG flights whereas they may believe that CO has to strong a hold on the corporate market in Northern NJ to garner enough front of the plane traffic to make the route a success against the CO EWR-HKG offering. What's more, once CO installs its new BE seating it will have a competitive hard product and one of the better soft products as far as US carriers go.

To be fair, JFK may not be an AA hub, but it is a focus city.
And many of us do live in Manhattan...and find it much easier to get out to JFK! That goes for everyone living in Westchester too: getting across the Hudson is a nightmare from anywhere east of it.

To be fair, JFK may not be an AA hub, but it is a focus city.
And many of us do live in Manhattan...and find it much easier to get out to JFK! That goes for everyone living in Westchester too: getting across the Hudson is a nightmare from anywhere east of it.

As pointed out many European countries have flights out of both JFK and EWR, and I know India definitely serves both.

I am merely pointing out Cathay is losing a lot of New Jersey and East Penn business to Continental by not having a flight out of EWR. Especially when Cathay aggressively tries to have 3 flights out of JFK.

As for Manhattan residents having "much easier" time to get out to JFK, hogwash. I'm a native New York City resident. You can't tell me with a straight face that it's easier to go across the East River (Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Williamsburg bridges) either go east through the always traffic nightmare LIE and then go south on Grand Central, or go west on 278 and then east on Belt Parkway are "better" than simply going through Lincoln or Holland tunnels and you're basically right at the outskirts of EWR airport.

:confused:

Mostly in NJ? Have you forgotten about Westchester county and Fairfield county don't count, much less Manhattan?
I was also taken aback by his overarching statement of where the income in the NY area was concentrated. :cool: :)

Problem getting to JFK is that once the Van Wyck has traffic, that's pretty much it. There are very few routes to JFK but in the end they converge on that road (or the other, but I can't recall the name). Once there's traffic there, it becomes an awful ride to the airport. EWR on the other hand is pretty simple to get to from certain parts of Manhattan. CO does well using it as their New York hub for a reason.