uanj

Stumbled on this old thread looking for something else. Brings back memories!

CX used to carry a lot of the international traffic out of Taiwan. No one liked CI, no JX, and BR was in its infancy.

There were so many fifth freedom flights left over from the early days: SQ had SIN-BKK-SEL, SIN-HKG-TPE, SIN-TPE-NRT. Tickets were quite interchangeable back then so I would exchange my HKG-NRT for HKG-TPE-NRT on SQ with two different flight numbers so PPS credit for two segments.

Cheapest flight HKG-MNL? Air Niugini. Cheapest flight HKG-SIN? CI. Cheapest flight SIN-PEN? BR. Last flight of the day KUL-CGK? BA. Last flight of the day SIN to CGK? LH. It was different world back then.

Fifth freedom rights are really interesting and they used to be so prevalent. Some remain, SQ continues to operate SIN-FRA-JFK and SIN-MAN-IAH, they used to operate SIN-AMS-EWR. When UA first got the rights to fly to Europe they tried a mini-hub at Paris and stationed 727s there to connect onward to ATH and two cities in Switzerland. They were attempting to replicate the Pan Am network at FRA which went to DL, but it did not last very long. UA also had LHR-AMS which they operated for a while, I forget how they got it.

CX also operated HKG-YVR-JFK. For a good while they had the only flight from JFK-YVR.

Yes, UA dropped the HKG-SIN leg when they started flying non-stop from SFO. I did not hear they wanted to add HKG-SIN again in 2020, are you sure about that? Just curious.

CX put tremendous pressure on the HK government to curb those fifth freedom rights. I remember someone at UA telling me that they could not get permanent authority for DEL and had to re-apply like twice a year and each time it would be opposed by CX (who were not even on the route). The uncertainty around the long term route authority was one of the reasons they dropped it.

SKRan

CX has an old 777-300 with ancient equipment, serving a lot of TPE departures. It also has some fifth freedom flights out of BKK, e.g. BKK-SIN.

CXYYZ

I don’t remember where I originally saw this but SG-based MainlyMiles has a post about it https://mainlymiles.com/2020/05/06/i...usiness-class/

uanj

Thanks for getting back on this. That application was filed May 5, 2020 when pandemic restrictions were in full swing. I vaguely remember a freight route back at that time, don't remember if they were taking passengers or not. There were a ton of additional freight only flights then.

Surface transportation across the Pacific became very unreliable as ports were subject to closure and significant additional screening measures. Air freight rates went through the roof as demand increased yet the supply was constrained due to the halt of most international passenger flights. UA did not lay off staff or park planes long term. Instead, UA pivoted and dramatically increased freight routes using their passenger aircraft. The best example is SFO-CTU was 3X weekly and CTU service went to 2X daily at one point. The Air Services agreement between the US and China restricts passenger flights, but there is little restricting air freight flights so UA was able to do this even though China had effectively banned UA's passenger flights as the pandemic kicked in.

UA inherited PA's route authorities and as far as I know they still have the right today to fly HKG-SFO if they so wish. However, UA have stated many times they are not interested in beyond fifth freedom flights any longer, they want direct service to the US. I think this application was likely part of the temporary pandemic measures and not part of any long-range plan.

Would be big news, though, if they start any of those fifth freedom rights again!