Hong Kong Airlines is pulling back some of its grand plans to expand, with the announcement that is dropping its long haul expansion, and deciding to focus more regionally
The carrier had orders in for 787’s and A380’s which have now been swapped around. The airline is to sell its two if its 737-300 freighters, whilst swapping the Airbus A380’s for A330’s and A320’s.
For Airbus, this is a big blow as this was one of the bigger A380 orders on the books in Asia.
Hong Kong Airlines haven’t made life easy for themselves with the dropping of their “business class only” flight to London with the economic downturn hitting and some of the wild pricing the route had, the route lasted only a few months.
Additionally, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Dept. (CAD) has recently frozen the fleet expansion plans for the airline due to “safety concerns”, with the regulator limiting the types of aircraft the carrier can fly on its Operating Certificate stating that they need to “catch up” with their expansion so far.
For Hong Kong Airlines, the dream of taking on Cathay Pacific with big widebodies internationally is on hold – for now.
Hm, your sources?