Cathay Pacific launches new London-Hong Kong service to cope with visitor surge

Cathay Pacific Airways is launching a new four-times-weekly service between Hong Kong and London Gatwick Airport, leveraging on surging visitor numbers between China and the UK, although the choice of Gatwick Airport is causing some uncertainty on the new flight's commercial viability.

The new flight by Cathay Pacific will become the second direct China UK flight landing in Gatwick, following on from Tianjin Airlines' direct flight between Tianjin and Gatwick, launched in June. Most other UK-China flights land in London's more popular hub airport Heathrow. Outside London, only Manchester in the north has direct China flights.

The new Cathay Pacific flight to Gatwick comes as Gatwick tries to transform its image from a European dominated airport, with the emphasis on holiday charter flights, to a major airport with scheduled long haul flights.

Gatwick is trying to take advantage of Heathrow's already full capacity, although it has experienced significant obstacles.

Newly installed UK Prime Minister Theresa May is considering an official inquiry which has recommended an extra runway be built at Heathrow despite energetic lobbying by Gatwick. She has yet to announce her decision.

Air China opened a non-stop flight between Gatwick and Beijing in 2011, but two years later shifted this service to Heathrow. Hong Kong Airlines launched an all business class direct flight between Hong Kong and Gatwick in March 2012, to cater towards business travelers, but insufficient customer demand means it had to cancel this flight in September of the same year.

One possible explanation for Cathay Pacific's new flight to Gatwick is "increasing demand from both business and leisure travelers" in the words of Cathay Pacific's General Manager Europe, Neil Glenn.

Cathay Pacific already runs direct flights 5 times per week from Heathrow while British Airways runs daily flights between Hong Kong and London.

Dan Elliott, a director and head of aviation practice at the London-based consultancy Frontier Economics, said normally Heathrow Airport is preferred by airlines because it is a major hub airport that connects to many other international destinations.

Wu Hao, vice chairman and executive vice president of Tianjin Airlines, told China Daily in a previous interview that Tianjin Airlines preferred Heathrow too. "Sadly there were no take off and landing slots available at Heathrow."

Booming demand for flights can be demonstrated by traveler statistics from VisitBritain. In 2015 over 1 million passengers travelled between UK and China, which is a 11 percent increase from 2014. In 2015, the number of Chinese tourists coming to the UK grew by 40 percent.

But Britain's decision to leave the EU could harm bilateral air traffic between the UK and China.

"I fear that the adverse consequences of the leave decision will damage our economy for years to come, making it more expensive for UK travelers to holiday or to transact business in China, whilst also making UK businesses less attractive to inward Chinese investment," said Paul Argyle, managing director of Flight Directors, an aviation industry sales and marketing firm.

Another key restriction for more flights is a bilateral flight numbers cap, which the two countries last negotiated in 2014, set at 40 return services in each direction to be operated by each country's airlines, an increase from 31 flights negotiated in 2011.

Jeremy Robinson, an EU and Competition Law partner at London-based law firm Watson Farley & Williams, said the UK could lose out on the potential to have more direct flights with China if it does not remain a part of the European Civil Aviation Area after it leaves the EU, although the specifics are still to be negotiated between the UK and EU.

Guy Stephenson, Chief Commercial Officer, Gatwick Airport, said the new flights mark an important milestone in the growth of the Gatwick long haul network, "which now more than ever provides the UK economy with vital routes into the world's most important markets."

To contact the reporter: cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com