jamienbaker

Super low priority question. Booked HKGDPS for about the 9th time...but the 1st time flying on KA.

Is it hit or miss where KA flights depart from these days? Just thinking ahead to the lounge strategy.

Appreciate any colour. Best to all - Jamie

bhyq

lixiaojuventus

I think the worst case is when your KA flight departs from remote gates (Gates 5xx, either true remote gates 511-530 or gates 501-510 in the north satellite terminal). In those cases you need to take a shuttle, which departs near gate 11 (one level below). If you happen to be in the Bridge or the Pier, then it will take some walk to get back to catch the shuttle. Therefore, whenever my KA flight departs from 5xx gates, I will just use either the Wing or the Deck.

garykung

If A320/1, it can be everywhere including North Satellite.

If A330, it will be at the Main Terminal.

percysmith

HKGDPS is inevitably a A330?

garykung

Per Airbus, A320/1 can handle HKG-DPS without issues. The question is whether KA does that or not.

QRC3288

KA exclusively serves DPS with A333. The OP will not have Dragon Island (500-515). True remote gates via bus boarding are of course possible with KA, even with CX metal in a true blue moon, but unlikely.

To the OP:
As other posters imply, your gate selection can really be random, but within 1-80 (aka 500+ remote gates technically possible, but rather unlikely). KA/CX assigned gates from HKIA I think right now are 1-4 (all), 40-49 (odd), 60-71 (all), and 21-33 (odd).

However, HKIA and all the airlines change up the regular gates from time to time. Unsure when the next change is. And anyway, CX/KA are such a large portion of HKG flights they will inevitably have half the gates anyway. Bottom line is that flight doesn't necessarily have a regular gate.
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dkc192

Has CX/KA stopped using gates 15-19?

xuukgo

jamienbaker

lixiaojuventus

Really? I just got Gate 30 for a KA flight earlier this week. So this was actually an anomaly?

QRC3288

yikes, I could be wrong. Those might be included too from afternoon onwards. But if morning, yes I think an anomaly.

Unfortunately I don't have the current information about which gates are primarily assigned where. I was privy to the information at the end of last year during a visit to airport operations. The detail in my previous post is coming from a friend at the airport. But if your flight was early morning, morning or even midday yes I think that was an anomaly.

I was given a look under the hood of some things at HKIA last year (... hobby interest, not really work related), and I saw protocol for gate rostering and the process around it. Indeed some gates are available to CX/KA all day long. Others not.

flubber

Yes, for logistics reasons the Wing might be a lot easier, but I find the Wing rather outdated. I prefer the Pier F/J much more. Going up the escalators and down again adds a total of 100-150 steps.. small "price" for a much nicer lounge. Then again, it depends on which gate your flight will depart from.

lixiaojuventus

Oh, I see. Thanks for the information! My flight was scheduled to depart after 7 pm, so I guess it is understandable that the gate assignment becomes more random. Nonetheless, it is very interesting to know that there is actually a pattern for CX/KA gate assignment. I thought that it is totally random

QRC3288

It's definitely not totally random from CX and HKIA's perspective, however from our perspective it may as well be. The main reason is CX/KA are so big at HKG that they have so many gates, you really could go from "anywhere". And the gate rostering does have big changes from time to time. Say even the average highly-frequent CX/KA traveler might do 50 ex-HKG departures a year. You really might not notice if for a 6-12 month period CX isn't using gates 15-19, since they use so many other gates anyway.And then maybe next year CX is allocated those gates again. So it could feel totally random. But it's not completely.

There are exceptions, of course. Early morning SHA and PVG flights, for example often go out of the high 60s/70s gates. I'm not sure why but one theory I have is CX wants to put pax close to Pier (this is pure speculation though, I have no information.) Early morning MNL/TPE/SIN flights often (but not always) can go from gates 1-4, due to longhaul aircraft arrival rotations and then those planes frequently being rostered on MNL/TPE/SIN flights. And of course back in the days of the full-scale carry on luggage inspection, CX's US flights tended to go from Gates 1-4 especially from midday onwards, and for a while gates 18-19 too, because they are all close to immigration/security and thus all the extra security officers required didn't have to traverse the whole airport.

Other reasons for other gates too, for example EK is allocated an odd 30s gates (for morning B77W) and 60+ (even only) for the A380 enabled gates for their remaining 3 A380 flights. All of those gates are near the EK lounge which is upstairs in the middle area between the 40s and 60s gates. SQ has easterly gates allocated, including the Gate 14 A380 enabled gate, due to proximity to the SQ lounge, but NOT gates G1-4 or 21 (which is also an A380 enabled gate), which are all mostly CX allocated for now (but Gate 21 is not exclusive CX I don't believe) due to proximity to the Wing. Qantas is in the same boat as SQ. Et cetera.