Cathay Pacific goes direct with Brisbane-Hong Kong flights
By David Flynn, March 9 2017
When is it better to spend less time enjoying a great airline? In the case of Brisbane's business travellers, it's when you no longer have to detour via Cairns when flying to – or from – Hong Kong.
Across the peak period from late October 2017 to March 2018, Cathay Pacific will replace its current four times weekly one-stop service to Brisbane via Cairns with direct flights to both cities.
The switch will see the Queensland capital getting 11 non-stop flights from Hong Kong each week.
The daily CX156/157 (which from March 26 will be flown by an Airbus A350) will be supplemented by Brisbane-Hong Kong's CX150 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; with the return leg CX155 running on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Cairns is also in line for three non-stop flights a week, with CX146 from Cairns to Hong Kong on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and CX103 from Hong Kong to Cairns on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Those direct services will continue to fly on an Airbus A330 and adopt new departure times to provide better connections at Hong Kong.
Taking CX146 as an example: this used to leave Cairns at 2.55pm to reach into Hong Kong at 8.10pm. The revamped schedule sees wheels-up at 8.05am for arrival into Hong Kong at 1.20pm, opening up greater connections to London, New York and Shanghai.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Jul 2016
Total posts 108
I think most of us saw this coming... Keep up the great work Cathay, this will certainly be a much better option!
10 Aug 2015
Total posts 125
Most likely they will make it year round sometime between october and march. Is it still A330 or is it A350
09 Mar 2017
Total posts 1
Hmm. I'm confused as to how this will change my existing booking. CX146 bne-cns-hkg on a Thursday in December. Can't see any changes on the CX portal just yet. Based in BNE and preferred the mid morning departure.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Jun 2015
Total posts 37
Would be nice to see CX extend their Cairns flight a little further south to Townsville.
10 Aug 2015
Total posts 125
They wouldn't get enough PAX to TSV
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1251
Curious as to how Cathay is fitting these flights into their traffic rights allowance?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Mar 2012
Total posts 233
It won't change how they've used their capped amount of flights because it only applies to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane airports. They can fly an unlimited amount to any other airport in the country (as they do with Adelaide.
04 Nov 2012
Total posts 213
Why Qantas gave up CNS/HKG/CNS years ago beats me flights go out full and to fly these sectors on CX are always very expensive.
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 379
Sigh... Why does every route announcement end up with at least one comment about why Qantas can't fly the same. Cathay are only just making this route direct. They also fly to their hub with onward connections. Qantas just wouldn't be able to make it profitable in current times. It's not the 80's/90's anymore
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