Cathay denies heading off Air New Zealand to China
Hong Kong based airline Cathay Pacific appears to have upset Air New Zealand’s entrance into the valuable Chinese market by boosting flights from New Zealand to Hong Kong just weeks before Air New Zealand’s Chinese service is due to start.
Cathay Pacific said yesterday that it would double its Auckland to Hong Kong services from once daily to twice daily from October, taking the total Auckland-Hong Kong capacity to 679 seats a day.
The move comes just ahead of Air New Zealand’s introduction of its three times weekly direct flights from Auckland to Shanghai in November, the first direct flights between New Zealand and mainland China aimed at securing some of the significant inbound business and tourism growth forecast to come from China over the next five years.
The peak travel season between November and April usually sees Cathay Pacific boosts services between Hong Kong and New Zealand, but this year services will be lifted to 14 a week from 12 last year.
David Figgins, Cathay Pacific’s New Zealand and Pacific Islands Manager, said that he was confident the airline would be able to fill seats on the route because it had full bookings during the peak season last year, denying that it was an attempt to thwart Air New Zealand’s direct flights to China, adding, “We can easily fill seats, we have group bookings already and we would have boosted our services regardless of what Air New Zealand was doing.”
Cathay Pacific’s recent effective control of Asian carrier Dragonair has given it better access to link routes into mainland China and Ed Sims, Air New Zealand’s Group General Manager of International Services said that competition would increase but Air New Zealand had a competitive edge in that customers would be able to use their frequent-flyer points.
He added that Air New Zealand was confident of filling seats from the high growth in inbound and outbound traffic to China, with Air New Zealand utilising Boeing 777s, with a 313-seat capacity, on the route.
Report by The Mole
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