FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Remind me not to fly CX out of ORD again
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Old Sep 10, 2018, 6:12 am
  #49  
QRC3288
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: CX, UA, Shangri-La, Hyatt, Starwood
Posts: 7,704
Originally Posted by golfingboy
The current flight time also sucks for connections beyond HKG - even to SIN.
i liked your points, particularly this one. I don't understand CX's ORD timing. Why not depart ex-HKG a few hours earlier, thus depart ex-ORD a few hours earlier, ergo arrive HKG at 6pm instead of 8pm and have a huge transit bank at HKG? (CMB, all India ports, and most SE Asia ports)? I can only guess there isn't that much demand from Indian heritage passengers ex-ORD, like there is ex-SFO?

So then I think, maybe this midday HKG departure has something to do with the ex-HKG departure timing needing to accommodate connecting traffic originating elsewhere in SE Asia. But if that's the case, why bother daytime at all? why not do the CX846 JFK / CX812 BOS / CX892 SFO style departures around 6pm (and upcoming IAD), which all then do midnight departure back ex-USA and land HKG early morning? This arrangement presumably would capture transit passengers on both sides in HKG: both passengers originating elsewhere in Asia transiting HKG, and passengers originating in the Chicago area and transiting HKG to elsewhere in Asia. The only group left out of this arrangement are non-Chicago based pax, who have an a crap arrival timing in ORD with no connectivity.

So I assume the timing had to do with CX feeding AA domestic USA traffic at ORD, so CX hits that specific arrival window. And CX has enough O&D traffic ORD to HKG they don't want to sit the plane on the ground in ORD for 10-12 hours for a midnight departure. That opportunity cost of sitting the plane for 12 hours might be higher than waiting to collect pax who would benefit from a midnight ORD departure, which would hit the massive early morning transit bank in HKG. In other busier ports CX is willing to sit the plane on the ground until midnight (CX892, CX882). But not at ORD.

Or maybe it has something to do with slots at HKG. But CX/KA has so many damn slots I doubt this is it.

Last edited by QRC3288; Sep 10, 2018 at 6:20 am
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