Hong Kong Airlines Eyes North American Flights

Hong Kong Airlines is finally at a point where it wants to reactivate long-haul flying, and it has celebrated by returning flights to the Gold Coast.

From January 17, 2025, Hong Kong Airlines will return to the sunny city with direct flights on a seasonal basis for under one month through February 15, 2025. The timing of these flights aligns with peak seasonal demand.

This upcoming launch is important for the company that, even before the global pandemic, pulled itself out of key haul markets with concerns about its long-term survival ability.

Looking ahead, the carrier wants to continue this momentum and is eyeing the commencement of service to North America, a market it has been missing for some time.

When celebrating the Gold Coast route announcement, its Chief Executive Officer Jeff Sun stated that flights to the Australian city will begin the re-entry into the long-haul market with more on the cards.

Expansion is set to continue, with efforts underway to return to cities across North America after a lengthy absence. According to the Chief Executive, who spoke with Bloomberg News, cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Seattle are all being evaluated.

To facilitate this future flying, the airline would draft up to three Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with the intention of making these North American flights possible by 2025.

However, Hong Kong Airlines wouldn’t look directly to Boeing to provide these aircraft, knowing the lengthy wait times that would come with this method; instead, the second-hand market is the direction it believes would be ideal.

Boeing 787 ops represent a switch from the Airbus A350s flown to cities such as Los Angeles during the mid to late 2010s before they were eventually removed alongside all long-haul flying during the pandemic.

Much scepticism remains around Hong Kong Airlines’ viability to offer long-haul flights to markets such as those within North America after notoriously struggling during the 2010s.

However, given that Hong Kong Airlines is an HNA Group-backed carrier, there are many possibilities to take on Dreamliners for a short period to trail the nature of the flights on the cheap.