Friday, August 23, 2002

Cathay eyes Toronto non-stop flight with new long-haul jets

Cathay Pacific Airways will probably launch a non-stop service to Toronto later this year, once it receives the first of three latest-generation ultra-long-haul airliners from Airbus Industrie.
The three A340-600s, ordered in March of last year from International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) on five-year leases, were originally expected to launch the transpolar non-stop service to New York.
However, Cathay sources said that they remained sceptical the New York route could be operated with profitable loads in the near term, especially given the continued uncertainties over the health of the United States economy.
The belief among Cathay's planners is that the carrier was better off strengthening its services to Toronto, a proven market where a large Hong Kong expatriate population exists.
At present, Cathay has daily direct services to the central Canadian city, with flights stopping in Anchorage for fuel.
It now uses an older version A340-300 for the route which has about 22 per cent fewer seats than the new 600 model, as well as significantly lower range.
Cathay also flies twice-daily services to Vancouver on the west coast.
In any case, Cathay still has plenty of time to consider the launch application for its A340-600 aircraft, as deliveries have now been delayed by at least two months.
The first aircraft is not expected to arrive from Toulouse, Airbus' final assembly plant in the south of France, until November at the earliest, as a result of production delays.
As recently as April, when a pre-production version of the A340-600 made a visit to Hong Kong as part of a publicity campaign and for type certification, Cathay had expected Airbus to begin delivery in September.
us104 However, the new schedule now calls for aircraft to arrive in November and December this year, and March of next year.
A Cathay spokeswoman confirmed that delivery of the new aircraft would not begin until November.
She refused to state reasons for the new delivery schedule, beyond saying that it was not made at the request of Cathay.
Recent reports have said the European manufacturer was facing production delays as a result of an overly ambitious timetable between certification to deliveries.
Deliveries of the A340-600 to Virgin Atlantic, the type's launch customer, have also been delayed by about a month.
The London-based carrier received its first delivery of the model last month.
The manufacturer is also believed to be delaying the handover of A3400-500 models to customers Air Canada and Singapore Airlines.
The delay brought into question whether Cathay still planned to launch its non-stop New York service this year.
Cathay said originally that it would launch the route in September of last year.
But the service was cancelled a month before launch, pending future review, after United Airways binned its offering around that time.

CX should launch nonstop to YYZ in direct competition with AC which plans to use its A340-500 aircarft for nonstop services later this year.

That's one of the reasons why CX might decide YYZ instead of JFK nonstop services.

currently, AC's YYZ-HKG is routed thru YVR
while CX's is back at Anchorage. does the
Anchorage layover make the flight shorter?
if so, by how much?

the CX ANC layover is a full US immigration check you may however leave your hand carry on the plane while you walk around the duty free then reboard the plane - usually takes 50 mins up to 1 hr 15 at the terminal

isn't it just a refueling stop?

Yes, but they make you get off the plane for an immigration check.

I flew to HKG from YYZ about 1.5 years ago with Cathay and did not have to go through customs in Alaska - why would pax have to do this as they are en route to Hong Kong and not spending any time in the US?

Apparently this was due to 9/11. But since then the ANC stop has revered back to its 'sterile' transit stop again and you are not subjected to US immigration checks.

The HKG-YYZ route is important for CX clients who do not carry US visas and want to fly direct to Canada. Otherwise, they'd have to fly via YVR.