Originally Posted by
Carfield
Warsaw, Vienna and Lyons are "no" for now. Given Lufthansa has not even restarted its own Munich flight and I don't even think Austrian will restart Hong Kong flights. We have to understand that flights to Europe are so much longer now so airlines are more cautious in restarting any Asia to Europe flights. I am actually surprised that CX will start Munich and restart Brussels (before restarting Gatwick), but maybe CX just wants to take advantage of Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group's current situation with a lack of long haul aircraft. Barcelona and Rome are unsurprising because there is always high demand. For 2025, I think we are pretty much done. Hopefully once 777-9s and Airbus A330-900neo come online in 2026/27, CX can start a few interesting routes including a few ones noted here. I can see Copenhagen/Dublin/London Gatwick coming back and maybe Birmingham service can finally start.
Beyond the market issues, CX is trying to fulfill HK government requests that it build more connections. The airport/government have also launched subsidies for connecting with Europe and North America to rebuild the network, so that's bound to be a consideration. While they're theoretically open to any carrier, CX was in position to leap on them quickly while Western carriers probably needed to do more assessments. I agree they may be taking the opportunity to steal some share on routes as well.
I'm not sure about Copenhagen - wasn't it dropped before Covid due to low loads?