Do we know if CX255/22MAR and CX251/22MAR were returned because of tech issue or because of fire at LHR?

Yes, but I thought the argument is if Emirates & Qatar cancel any of their 777x orders, they may be released to other airlines such as CX and hence CX and other airlines stand to benefit from getting more 777x and sooner.

An extremely important thing to consider and well highlighted.

The advantages CX and other airlines reap from this situation vary greatly. The volume/traffic shift is somewhat of a domino effect. For example: if passengers from India to North America shift from ME3 to CX, then what happens to the displaced travellers from Mainland China/Hong Kong/South East Asia.

Whilst the volume in ME3's business is between Europe/Subcon, the high yield business is between Europe and Australia. HKIA is in a very good location for these customers!

And then there's the million dollar question: I am willing to pay an extra $ for comfort, $ for direct flights and an extra $ for my safety. Many travel insurance providers will not cover anything going via the Middle East either, ME3's recovery may be quick but airlines, including CX, will realise that people are willing to pay a safety premium.

In the last sentence of the post that I quote, fakecd suggests that Cathay could compete with the ME3 connections model:

i am very bullish CX (more so than SQ given its china affiliation and freedom of navigation) to be able to penetrate into the void or ME3 hub and spark model

My point was that Hong Kong's geographic location means that's never going to happen. No one traveling from Europe to India (or Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh) is going to fly to Hong Kong to catch a connecting flight. Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi are in the right location for those connections but Hong Kong certainly isn't. It's little different than someone wanting to fly from Seattle to San Diego in the U.S.: are they going to fly to Newark or Atlanta to connect? Of course not. The latter two cities' geographic position mean that they are not viably competing for such transfer business.

Hong Kong is in an excellent position to offer connections between North America and Southeast Asia or North America and Mainland China. Interestingly, these are the same region pairs where geography makes the ME3 uncompetitive. (You wouldn't fly from San Francisco to Dubai in order to get to Bangkok.) But the overall principle is that the ME3 are in a good geographic position to serve as superconnectors, whereas a Hong Kong-based airline like CX is not--even if there ARE some routes where Hong Kong makes sense as a transfer point.

Hong Kong (and Singapore too) is actually in a fine position for North America to South Asia, Europe to Oceania, and even maybe even Europe to Southeast Asia and East Asia to Africa/Oceania. The ME3 is not just Europe-Africa/South Asia traffic.

I wonder if CX will eventually fly from WSI? SQ is about to launch new route from WSI tomorrow.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...sydney-airport

i wont comment further on ME3 vs CX competion landscape so not to digress.

all I feel is the potential airframes that would otherwise have gone to ME3 may be available for CX which opens up new route competitive advantage. detriment of ME3 is windfall X factor for those who were arguing against new routes due to lack of airframe

I would have thought that ME3 ordered those air frames to replace and retire their old ones, so they will still take those new air frames anyway?

Also I would think if ME3 cannot take those, RX will take them instead as they need a lot of air frames.

Am i the only one who is getting a bit concern of how frequently Cathay is suffering from IROP and AOG for the last few weeks? I swear the rate is a bit concerning

At some point last year it was the A35Ks that had one breakdown per day... this year's the 77W's turn

Today CX233

Not a chance for HKG unless WSI is undesignated as a "primary gateway" - in short, flights between HKG and BNE/MEL/PER/SYD/WSI are limited by the Australian government and traffic rights on the HKG side are already at capacity. (Of course, rights on the AUS side are not close to being fully utilized - classic QF protectionist nonsense but I won't get into that...)

SIN operates under open skies.

Well we may need HX to withdraw from HKG-SYD/MEL route then ...... Could be waiting for a long time.

Aus should designate WSI as a regional airport.

Blogger airlinereporter.com has posted a summary of the SEA inaugural flight event on his blog:

https://www.airlinereporter.com/2026...ck-of-a-party/

Few airlines put in as much effort as Cathay to celebrate an inaugural flight like this one.