No way, when you have have experienced CX at it best to what it is now, you would know what I am talking about. You obviously have never know real premium. Constant cost cutting to minor details and service levels both on board and on the ground make you feel like they are doing you a favour letting you fly with them.The level of nepotism in managemnt has become so great,its not wonder the employees dont want to work their arses off for the minority to get rich.Another fine example of of how arrogance in business is a killer.

This is a strange debate to me. Cathay can be premium despite not being the best it ever was and despite not being as perfect as Singapore or Qatar (which both have their own issues, particularly the latter.) Relative to most airlines in the world though? And the original comment relates to the market for mainland passengers from North America...certainly no mainland airline is in the same league.

I agree QR means Totally Over Rated.

Nice news from KHH, Tiger is good for the short flights!

At least they are not granting EVA or Starlux the right to fly TSA - HKG, that would be a devastating steal for travelers based in HK. That said, for EVA to get more flights to HKG is indirectly another steal for cross-pacific transiting passengers.

My personal opinion is for CX to just fully integrate its HK Express fleet to TPE to create a full day schedule between HKG and TPE (so to fill the void between 7pm and 10pm). This will help boost connecting passengers flying long-haul via HKG on a full CX itinerary. The remaining HK Express fleet could go somewhere new and fresh (e.g. Komatsu/ Niigata/ Guam).

Competition is good but it also mean most flights between TPE and HKG on CX metals will rarely be overbooked = no to the usual upgrade ex-TPE to HKG for GO and DM folks.

Great point, I'm really confused as to why they are overloading TPE and not assigning any TSA-HKG rights. I think Starlux would've been a perfect candidate for TSA, as a new premium start up airline based in Taiwan.

EDIT: Found some interesting tidbits.

• "The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) might negotiate raising the number of flights allowed at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) with the Taipei City Government, as more airlines are expected to use low-pollution and low-noise aircraft, CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said yesterday."
• "Because of the restrictions, only eight flights can be operated per day using Airbus A330s, he said."
• "The airport has greatly improved noise controls since airlines have been told to adjust their routes to bypass Xinyi District (信義), Lin said. “The Boeing 787-10 generates less noise and can accommodate more passengers. We could negotiate with the Taipei City Government on the number of daily flights allowed using Boeing 787-10s,” he said."

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/tai.../23/2003805162

Interesting news on pollution related viewpoints - though I still think its a match to have stinky tofu while watching nostalgically the belly of an ATR 72 in Taipei.

My understanding has always been how TPE was built as a competition hub to HKG. Allowing TSA flights to HKG would just feed locals to fly via HKG.

Anothe month of lower load factor of 80.5% in November for CX, which they mentioned that it is slow month.

EU load factor drop from88% to 80%.


https://news.cathaypacific.com/cathay-pacific-releases-traffic-figures-for-november-2023

Understandably - many UK and other European school holidays take place in October. November hotel prices in Hong Kong were high throughout. Flew through HKG on a couple of sectors in November. Flights were somewhat busy, but no where near full (in Economy)

CX's traffic increase actually beat its capacity increase within the month of November 2023.

Below is a comparison between CX and SQ for November 2023 using CX's route region definitions and roughly putting SQ's into it. SQ below excludes Scoot (whose total load factor was higher than SQ's at 90.8% on a standalone basis) as there is not enough information disclosed to calculate a group load factor split by route regions.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0493e95181.png

CX811 (BOS-HKG) departing on 25/dec is way oversold in Y while Business is only half full and CX op up 18 paxes to business.

This comment has aged like fine wine

Exactly - more than sufficient pilots to operate the schedule but not enough yet to cover for the current flu epidemic. Arguable they should have been better prepared for such an eventuality but given that the airline is still in recovery stage and need to generate cash it is a fine line to tread.
Fortunately the few cancellations are far less than the major US and European carriers routinely cancel daily although it is unusual for CX to cancel flights at all

Cathay has announced the CX traffic statistics for December. These show that their load factor was 81.2% in December 2023. This compares with 85% in December 2019. Also the ASK (also excluding UO) was 62.6% of the 2019 result which in turn was 1.3% lower than that for December 2018, before the troubles. The December reult also shows a decline from November 2023 when it was 65% of November 2019.

The high load factor for December 2019 compared to previous months was mainly due to Cathay reducing it capacity that month by 1.3% due to the poor sentiment of inbound travel due to the unrest in Hong Kong
These figures of course included those of Dragon Air

The load factor for year 2023 was almost exactly the same as for year 2019