why not?

Russian sanctions? I don't know the exact details but I thought only HU and other full-blooded Chinese carriers can. HX more than less likely can't alongside CX - USD peg?

HX flew their YVR flights via Russian airspace during winter times.

To NA yes but not Europe https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...er-russia.html

CX can do so, it chooses not to do so. It's a choice, not a requirement.

Who is this intended for? Surely not holiday makers because the 1:30am departure time is brutal on the way back.

for budget travellers with minimal holidays. They can go directly after work and back to work in the morning on their return date and save a night of accomodation. Special forces way of travelling.

but they're not saving a night of accommodation on the way there.

As long as ticket prices are cheap, a lot won’t mind the sub-optimal flight times. On the other hand, it’s handy for UO to finally increase the aircraft utilisation rather than sitting in HK overnight.

yeah but the entire previous quote was claiming that the flights is for budget travellers who are optimising on accommodation prices. The return schedule does nothing for that.

UO can always increase (and have always increased) aircraft util by adding another Japanese village and do overnight flights. There's enough demand amongst HKers for that.

I am pretty sure they had a southbound red eye from KIX that hasn't come back for example. I am actually a bit surprised that they don't do more redeyes for utilization. Its not like they are CX have long haul red eyes that need to be flown.

There are two peach overnight flights and a CX overnight flight to KIX. So maybe that's too much competition?

No, thats all northbound. There is no southbound redeye currently from KIX. The only Japan southbound redeyes are the UOs out of HND.

CTS redeyes both ways would work too I think but I think someone said SDJ is as far UO can go since they don't like overnighting crews. Actually, I've always been surprised CX doesn't run redeyes to CTS at least in ski season because CTS is the worst for "wasting" a day travelling.

On all of these though, the other sector isn't very attractive though:
-If its a northbound redeye, the return is at like 8am/9am unless you want the plane to sit for half a day so not very pax friendly (read lower yield). But CX/UO have made it work with their existing northbound redeyes.
-If its a southbound redeye, the outbound is at like 6pm/7pm landing at midnight-ish which is also not very pax friendly. Two of UO's HNDs do that though. Maybe the premium yields on the southbound balances out the discount yields on the northbound? Probably also a question of slots available at HND.

I think CX also tries to avoid flying over Russia because it will affect their codeshare partners.

For example, AA has to withdraw their codeshare with CX on JFK and BOS flights because those flights (especially westbound) will fly over Russia. US carriers cannot fly over Russia because of sanction. For JFK and BOS, CX really has not many choices but other than those two cities, CX doesn't want to give up the AA codeshare for West Coast, Chicago and DFW. I wonder if it also explains why their European flights also avoid Russia, as I am sure EU has similar saunction.
CX of course does not want to take any chances for any emergency landing at any Russian cities.

Carfield

Maybe UO can do the red eye Bali as well. 8ish pm leaving HK, and mid night return from Bali. Prefer red eye to be longer, rather than the short red eye like BKK, MNL red eye.