Cathay Pacific First Airbus A350 Routes Revealed

---

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

Link to my review of the Cathay Pacific A35o Business Class experience

The first schedule update from Cathay Pacific showed the planned regional operations for their new aircraft and now we know a lot more about the international routes that the aircraft will be flying – see below for a series of schedules that I do my best to maintain reasonably regularly…at least the long-haul ones!

Update: I have reformatted the way this post is laid out. The routes are now in alphabetical order by destination.

Please also note that I cannot keep all the route information fully up to date as that would be a job in itself! Instead I will make changes when I notice them and I will do my best to add any new routes to this post as and when Cathay Pacific announces them.

Hong Kong – Auckland

From 27 October 2016 (was 30 October) Cathay Pacific will be serving Auckland with its A350 aircraft on the following schedule (replacing Airbus A340):

CX197 HKG 21:25 – 13:15+ 1 day AKL (Daily)
CX198 AKL 14:50 – 21:00 HKG (Daily)

From 1 March to 25 March 2017 Cathay Pacific will increase flights between Hong Kong and Auckland from 7 to 10 per week with all 1o flights being operated by A350 aircraft. The extra flights are scheduled as follows:

CX117 HKG 15:25 – 07:35+1 day AKL (Wed, Fri, Sat)
CX118 AKL 09:00 – 15:25 HKG (Thu, Sat, Sun)

Hong Kong – Bangkok

From 1 July 2016 the Airbus A350 has been appearing on various flights on the Hong Kong – Bangkok route and the scheduling of the A350 on these flights has been quite fluid. That has made trying to keep up with what flights will feature the A350 and which won’t a nearly impossible task so I’m not going to list flights below.

If you want to check which flights to/from Bangkok have A350 service the check the Cathay pacific website for your specific dates of travel or sign up for a free trial at ExpertFlyer.

Hong Kong – Düsseldorf

From 1 September 2016 Cathay Pacific will be replacing the 777-300ER on the Hong Kong to Düsseldorf route with one of its very new Airbus A350 aircraft. The route will remain at 4x/week on the following schedule:

CX379 HKG 00:50 – 07:10 DUS (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat)
CX376 DUS 13:25 – 06:35+ 1 day HKG (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat)

Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City

The A350 service on this route can be quite variable but, last time I checked, these flights were correct through September 2016.

CX767 HKG 08:35 – 10:10 SGN (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat)
CX799 HKG 16:20 – 17:55 SGN (Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun)

CX764 SGN 19:05 – 22:50 HKG (Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun)
CX766 SGN 11:15– 15:15 HKK (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat)

Hong Kong – London Gatwick

Information on the London – Gatwick route can be found in this blog post here.

Hong Kong – Melbourne (NEW Update)

This is big news for Cathay Pacific Flyers!

From 1 February 2017 Cathay Pacific will be replacing one of the ageing (and fuel guzzling) A330-300 aircraft on the Hong Kong – Melbourne route with a nice new Airbus A350.

The A350 operated flights will be as follows:

CX105 HKG 00:05 – 12:20 MEL (Daily)
CX104 MEL 15:25 – 21:45 HKG (Daily)

Hong Kong – Manila

From 1 June 2016 Cathay Pacific has been flying the Airbus A350 between Hong Kong and  Manila and this was the route on which the Cathay Pacific A350 took its inaugural flight.

At the time of writing this is the correct schedule but make sure you check before you book as Cathy likes to changes things around!

CX907 HKG 07:35 – 09:45 MNL (Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun)
CX901 HKG 09:00 – 11:15 MNL (Tue, Wed, Sun)
CX919 HKG 14:25 – 16:45 MNL (Mon, Wed, Sat)
CX903 HKG 16:35 – 18:55 MNL (Mon, Tue)
CX935 HKG 17:40 – 19:55 MNL (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat)
CX906 MNL 10:50 – 13:15 HKG (Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun)

CX900 MNL 12:25 – 14:50 HKG (Tue, Wed, Sun)
CX918 MNL 17:50 – 22:10 HKG (Mon, Wed, Sat)
CX902 MNL 20:05 – 22:20 HKG (Mon, Tue)
CX934 MNL 21:05 – 23:25 HKG (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat)

Hong Kong – Paris

From 14 November 2016 (was 31 October) Cathay Pacific is replacing one of the two 777-300ER aircraft that currently operate this route with an Airbus A350. The A350 will operate 2 – 3x/week on the following schedule:

CX279 HKG 09:50 – 16:05 CDG (Mon, Thu, Sat) – Thursday service commences 1 December 2016

CX278 CDG 20:10 – 14:55+1 day HKG (Mon)
CX278 CDG 20:20 – 15:05+1 day HKG (Thu, Sat) – Thursday service commences 1 December 2016

Hong Kong – Rome

Between 31 October 2016 and 25 March 2017 Cathay Pacific will swap out the 777-300ER aircraft that currently operates the HKG – FCO route with an Airbus A350. The route will also go from a daily service to a 4x/week service from 31 October.

CX293 HKG 00:30 – 06:35 FCO (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)
CX292 FCO 12:25 – 06:50+ 1 day HKG (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)

Hong Kong – Singapore

CX759 HKG 08:45 – 12:35 SIN (Thu)
CX712 SIN 13:35 – 19:55 HKG (Thu)

Please note that Cathay Pacific does a lot of crew orientation flights with their A350 as it receives more new aircraft so there’s a good chance that you may find the A350 scheduled at other times too.

Hong Kong – Taipei

From 1 June 2016 the A350 will operate the Hong Kong – Taipei route 5 to 6 times per week. While the flight numbers for the Airbus A350 flights appear to remain constant on this route, the days on which the aircraft will fly the route vary…so check the schedules carefully if you’re planning to book one of these flights.

CX400 HKG 16:15 – 18:15 TPE
CX409 TPE 19:20 – 21:10 HKG

Hong Kong – Taipei Taoyuan – Osaka Kansai (NEW Update)

Cathay Pacific has offered an A350 service on the Hong Kong – Taipei route since 1 June 2016 but now the airline has added scheduled A350 service on the Taipei Taoyuan – Osaka Kansai which the Hong Kong – Taipei flight connects to.

Between 2 January and 23 March 2017 Cathay Pacific will fly the A350 between Taipei and Osaka Kansai on varying days of the week – please check the latest airline schedule to see what days the new aircraft will operate.

Readers with an ExpertFlyer subscription should find it easy to check which flights offer the A350.

Hong Kong – Vancouver

From 28 March 2017 Cathay Pacific is increasing the number of flights it offers between Hong Kong and Vancouver from 14 to 17 and the new flights being added will be served by the airlines Airbus A350 aircraft.

At things stand the A350 flights are scheduled as follows:

CX856 HKG 11:00 – 07:55 YVR (Tue, Thu, Sat)
CX855 YVR 09:25 – 13:45+1 day HKG (Tue, Thu, Sat)

Award Availability

If you’re looking to be one of the first people to try out the new Cathay Pacific premium cabins in its Airbus A350 but have no great need to part with too much cash then the Manilla and Taipei routes are the way to go.

There is both Premium Economy and Business Class availability between Hong Kong and Taipei on 2 May 2016 (the second day of official A350 operations):

And, if you’re prepared to wait a few more days, there’s Premium Economy available on the Manilla route on 4 May 2016……

…and Business Class availability begins to open up on 6 May 2016.

Other Cathay Pacific A350 Routes

The A350 has been brought in by Cathay to, primarily, replace their ageing A330 aircraft  so service to the South Pacific looks to be a near certainty. Cathay Pacific’s regional general manager has already told Australian Business traveller that “Auckland will be one of the first A350 routes, certainly the first in the Southwest Pacific” (UPDATE: Now confirmed and included in the schedule above) and, with so many A330 currently flying between Hong Kong and Australia, you can count on those being replaced sooner rather than later.

Other rumoured destinations include Milan, Zürich, Barcelona and Düsseldorf (Update: Düsseldorf now confirmed and included in the updated schedules above) but, until Cathay start loading up their schedules again, we won’t know for sure.

Bottom Line

I’ve only flown on the Airbus A350 once so far (on one of Finnair’s very first A350 flights) and I liked what I saw. I enjoyed the outside windows and the noise reduction (compared to similar sized aircraft) is noticeable.

Finnair have done a great job with their Business Class cabin on the A350 so I expect Cathay pacific’s offering to be excellent. Cathay does premium product and service very well so I’ll be looking to try out the Hong Kong – Gatwick route as soon as I see award availability open up. (Update: I’ll be flying Hong Kong – Düsseldorf in September so watch out for a review)