The airline will operate 61 return flights per week between Hong Kong and 13 cities across the border.
A Cathay Pacific Airbus A321neo aircraft, the latest addition to its fleet. (Photo: Cathay Pacific)
Hong Kong International Airport may have reopened to transit travelers last August, with a major caveat: flyers were not allowed to connect to mainland China. Those restrictions will be lifted this Sunday (January 8), as the mainland gradually reopens its border with Hong Kong and the wider world; Beijing is also ending limits on passenger numbers aboard flights from Hong Kong, Macau, and all airports overseas.
In response, Cathay Pacific will operate a total of 122 one-way flights per week between Hong Kong and over a dozen cities in mainland China from January 14. This represents a nearly 60 percent increase over the current count of 27 flights per week from Hong Kong to the mainland and 50 flights per week in the other direction.
Cathay is increasing flights between Hong Kong and Beijing to 10 pairs per week from Sunday, and those between Hong Kong and Shanghai (Pudong) will go up to 21 pairs per week. The airline has also announced the resumption of passenger services to Guangzhou with five-times-weekly flights. Meanwhile, from January 14, Hong Kong–Xiamen flights will be set at four pairs each week, and the Hong Kong–Chengdu route will have six pairs per week.
The frequency of flights to Hangzhou remains at three times weekly; Fuzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, and Wuhan are being served twice a week, while Cathay flies to Xi’an and Zhengzhou on a weekly basis; it now plans to run over 100 return flights per week between Hong Kong and mainland China by March. The Cathay Pacific Group will restore 70 percent of its total pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity by the end of this year, and hopes to reach 2019 levels before the end of 2024.
