mrcimino1

Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that CX recently started ORD-HKG non-stops. That flight would certainly appeal to OneWorld flyers who might have opted before for the Delta flight in order to avoid the West Coast connection from AA to CX. Now they have a decent alternative with an arrival time similar to the one DL was offering.

And if CX/AA went out and marketed it heavily to corporate accounts at a discount, as they most probably have done, that would surely take away some of DL's top $$ passengers.

Chalk it up to another battle lost, similar to the MIA-LHR route that DL dropped after they could not grab enough high level fares from AA/BA on that one.

RMAnalystATL

I don't believe it. Our schedules are not even close to finalized for next summer so if expect there to be some changes. When schedules are loaded into GDS they may appear to discontinue forever but may reappear as a capacity addition in a few weeks. I hope that is the case with DTWHKG but I'll admit that I don't know 100%....

RMAnalystATL

Love your screen name! My wife is from GYE! Sad that we discontinued ATL-GYE in January but happy to have you sporting the GYE name and supporting DL as a DM!

tajd12

I was hoping this route would hang on, but it seemed the past few times there were more than a few empty seats in BE and non-revs and op-ups were in a good portion of the seats. Very glad to see nothing is changing with ICN at least.
As others have mentioned, the arrival time into HKG was great. Connecting to get in late in HKG doesn't seem very desirable although I think the Airport Express runs until 1am. Will have to take a look at CX through ORD I guess.

skchin

I'm glad I tried this route before they cancels it.

HkCaGu

DL was able to push NRT-HKG arrival to past 11 pm just because both NRT and DTW routes use the same aircraft and crew (B777). NRT-HKG-DTW is a 10-hour layover and DTW-HKG-NRT is even longer. Once DTW goes away, I guess they'd have to make NRT-HKG earlier (back to 6 pm/10 pm) to ensure adequate rest with delay margins.

BizJet

I'm guessing BOS-LHR is next.

krpjr

Where will the aircraft be allocated, JFK/ATL-DOH ?

Maybe LAX-SIN non stop?!

jimyvr

If it's seasonal cut it would have reappear or at least open reservation on/after 22MAR13. Unfortunately this route is not even showing in May 2013.

motytrah

PVG was a bitter bidding war with the DOT. But when NW did it they thought they'd have the 787. The calculus was a smaller plane with better CASM, and amenities that would allow for a premium price.

If DL drops it I wonder if it goes up for bid again?

discstickers

The chatter on a.net is that DTW-HKG will be replaced by another US gateway with higher yield. The only options are really LAX and SEA.

ClipperDelta

Or lower cost...any West Coast gateway would be cheaper to operate from than DTW or ATL or JFK, etc.

Ultimately, DTW-HKG is an ultra-long-haul (ULH) route and is very expensive to operate - fuel, crews (requiring four pilots, longer mandatory rest time between trips thus lowering crew productivity, etc.), fuel, fuel, fuel, fuel....in the new fuel environment, all ULHs are under increasing scrutiny and very few will 'make it'...

UA has traditionally been stronger/bigger in China/Hong Kong than NW (and now DL), just as NW(DL) has traditionally been stronger/bigger in Japan. In addition, just because UA continues to hang on to those nonstops does not mean they are all profitable. In Q1 2012, UA specifically blamed its China/HKG services for its lackluster RASM performance in the Pacific, and cited CX's entrance into ORD-HKG as one of the reasons as well....

ClipperDelta

Delete....double post

LegalTender

Isn't that what they said about ATL-PVG?

The DTW-HKG death knell was the double bonus SkyMile offer they announced last fall. Never a good sign. Ok, rarely.

gustoj820

If they route a 777 on NRT-HKG, that plane can immediately turn back to the west coast and feed late regional and red-eye flights at that west coast gateway and then turn as a red-eye back to HKG. Then at HKG it would turn back to NRT within a few hours. It's pretty intelligent utilization, probably more suitable for LAX. Or the 77L could do a LAX-HKG-LAX turn somewhere in between ATL/SYD/NRT flights at LAX.

SEA would likely require more conventional daytime flights (which if they have a lot of 777s to burn with long sits at either HKG or SEA, maybe that's not a problem). I believe the 332 would suffer punishing weight restrictions on SEA-HKG that would make that type unsustainable for the route.

I'd say both gateways have their merits and drawbacks.