Originally Posted by
PsiFighter37
UA canceled ORD-HKG even before the pandemic. Perhaps one could argue that the impact of the protests/national security law passage in 2019 have passed, but until I go back (which is in two weeks), my impression has been that Hong Kong is simply not what it used to be from a very heavily-trafficked business destination.
ORD-HKG was important to UA before the merger because planes at that time struggled to consistently reach JFK. ORD had great connections to the East Coast, I used to take it all the time. Once the merger took place traffic started to switch to EWR-HKG.
You are right, overall traffic continued to drop which put further pressure on the ORD flight. Finally the protests in 2019 put the brakes on a lot of business travel to HKG. It's normalized now, but the buzz in Hong Kong from before is gone.