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These are tough times in Hong Kong and with the protests showing no real sign of dying down for good (and having dragged on for far longer than anyone had expected) the appetite for travel to the ‘Special Administrative Region’ has dropped significantly.
The decreased number of flyers wishing to travel to Hong Kong has resulted in some airlines slashing prices significantly (you can fly Business Class between Europe and Hong Kong with SWISS for under $1,400 roundtrip) while others have cut back on the number of flights they’re offering to the region.
United first reacted to the unrest in Hong Kong by mothballing its route between Chicago and Hong back in September and then it reduced planned capacity on its route between Newark and Hong Kong by swapping out a 777-300ER for a smaller and older 777-200 from early December.
Now the airline is taking things further by cutting back the number of flights it offers between Newark and Hong Kong during the winter season.
Where United’s schedules once showed the airline operating a daily service between Newark and Hong Kong, a recent update now leaves the airline operating just 3 flights per week through to the end of March 2020:
UA180 HKG 11:00 – 13:25 EWR (Mon, Thu & Sat)Where frequent flyers on this route could once look forward to daily flights on aircraft offering United’s latest Polaris Business Class cabin, they’re now facing a winter schedule of 3 flights per week on aircraft with Business Class cabins that have been out of date for years.
American Increases Flights To Tel Aviv
We don’t often see an airline scheduling more flights on a route it has yet to begin operating but that’s exactly what American Airlines has just done with its new route to Tel Aviv.
At the beginning of August American announced that it would be starting up service between Dallas and Tel Aviv from September 2020 and that the route would operate 3x/week….but not anymore.
American Airlines has filed an update to its planned Tel Aviv service and is now offering a daily service on the following schedule:
AA018 DFW 21:00 – 18:00+1 day TLV (Tue, Fri & Sun)
AA018 DFW 22:20 – 19:10+1 day TLV (Mon, Wed, Thu & Sat)
AA019 TLV 22:05 – 05:05+1 day DFW 789 (Tue, Thu, Fri & Sun)
AA019 TLV 22:40 – 05:15+1 day DFW 789 (Mon, Wed & Sat)
The new service to Tel Aviv starts up on 9 September 2020 but won’t settle down to the schedule you see above until 3 November 2020 and, technically, this may all change as the route is still subject to government approval…but that should only be a minor technicality.
[HT: RoutesOnline]
