Daily flights between Hong Kong and Shanghai's Hongqiao airport launched last month have been popular with passengers keen to cut the journey time between the two cities.
So says James Tong, chief executive of Dragonair. Seats had sold out on the route during the week-long National Day holiday that began on the mainland yesterday, he said.
Tong (pictured) believes the strengthening of the yuan against other major currencies has made mainlanders more willing to travel abroad. Dragonair has also logged an increase in the number of travellers from the mainland transiting in Hong Kong for onward journeys to destinations such as Australia, Singapore or Japan, since indirect flights are cheaper than direct flights.
Dragonair operates one daily return flight to Hongqiao. It is one of four carriers to have begun flights between Hong Kong and Hongqiao last month, the others being China Eastern Airlines, its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines, and Hong Kong Airlines. Each operates one return flight a day.
The flights to Hongqiao airport have turned the clock back for Dragonair, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific Airways, which began operating charter flights to what was then Shanghai's only international airport in 1988.
Dragonair switched its Shanghai flights to the city's Pudong International Airport in 2002, and until recently Shanghai had limited Hongqiao to domestic flights. But many passengers prefer to use Hongqiao because it is close to the city centre, whereas the Pudong airport is 30 kilometres away.