Hong Kong Airlines to launch weekend giveaway of tickets as it marks return to 75 per cent of pre-coronavirus flight levels
- Airline says popular destinations Japan and Thailand already back to pre-coronavirus flight levels
- Carrier says it plans to return to 100 per cent of pre-pandemic flight numbers by middle of next year
Sun, head of the second-largest airline in the city, told the Post on Friday that popular destinations Japan and Thailand had already reached 100 per cent of pre-pandemic flight levels as the carrier looked to increase its fleet and international network.
The airline, which hit the 75 per cent target four months earlier than predicted in January, said it planned to get back to 100 per cent of pre-pandemic flight levels by the middle of next year.
“For the coming months we plan to continue to fly to new destinations in Japan and have more [flight] frequencies, for example, Taipei,” Sun said.
The carrier has restarted flights to 23 destinations, including Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai. It flew to 34 places before the pandemic hit in 2020.
The airline has a fleet of 16 aircraft and Sun said the company planned to bring back two mothballed Airbus A320 planes by the end of the year, depending on demand.
It is also looking at possible fleet resources to support its growth.
The airline, founded in 2006, is in direct competition with Cathay Pacific Group’s two passenger airlines.
Sun said he was confident about the future of the carrier in the wake of a HK$49 billion (US$6.2 billion) restructuring process completed in April.
The airline, backed by mainland China-based HNA Group, was dealing with financial difficulties even before the pandemic. It saw profits slide further, debt payments deferred and jobs cut after the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the industry.
But Sun said: “We have already successfully [completed] the restructuring so now the company operations and the financial conditions are very healthy and smooth.”
He was speaking as he promoted a giveaway of 1,000 free round-trip economy tickets, which will be opened to the public in Causeway Bay this weekend.
The event was organised to mark this year’s launch of new routes to Beijing, Fukuoka and Nagoya in Japan and Thailand’s Phuket. It is part of the government’s promotional drive to bring back tourists to the city.
Frustration in the air again over 2-hour wait for free Hong Kong Airlines tickets
The public can queue up at 9am to get a ticket number, with destinations given out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Once they have obtained a ticket, they then have to return at designated times depending on the destination they want to fly to and play a “Gacha” game, which is a toy vending machine, to get a ticket redemption voucher.
About 470 tickets to destinations including Beijing, Taipei and Seoul will be up for grabs.
There will be 450 tickets to destinations in Japan available on Sunday. It is the airline’s first live event after three rounds of online tickets sales. The remainder of the tickets will be given out by other means, including a Facebook photo competition.
An auditor, who gave her surname as Choi, said she planned to try her luck on both days as she wanted to get free tickets to Taipei and Japan.
“I think people will start to queue at 7am,” she predicted.
The airline will release 1,100 more free round-trip economy-class tickets from Taipei to Hong Kong from August 29.
Singapore Airlines is also selling discounted fares to selected locations, deals for people travelling in pairs, and offering a travel miles giveaway to its frequent fliers to mark its 65th anniversary in Hong Kong.
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The Singapore carrier offered a limited “2-to-go” offer on economy-class tickets starting from HK$1,605 a head to the city state, but only if two tickets are bought at the same time. The deal is also only available for specified periods this year and in 2024.
The same offer is also available for Bali, Indonesia, from HK$2,495, and for Malaysian cities Kuala Lumpur from HK$1,875 and Penang from HK$2,435.
Discounts on one-way flights for selected locations such as Singapore are also available, with economy tickets priced from HK$1,765 and business-class seats from HK$11,225.
Singapore Airlines’ website said flights outside the promotional periods could cost triple the amount. A trip from Hong Kong to Singapore in late December was listed as HK$5,576.
A check by the Post found the lowest fares were available only on specific dates, but the long queues and website disruptions that have dogged earlier airline promotions such as ticket giveaways did not appear to be a problem.
Singapore Airlines did not disclose the amount of discounted tickets available “due to commercial reasons”.
Members of its frequent flier programme, KrisFlyer, have been given a chance to win 250,000 air miles for tickets from Hong Kong to any destination.
Dan Chau, a 39-year-old consultant and KrisFlyer member, said the offers were “a good effort” but not significant enough for him to make a trip out of them.
“They’re not as buzzworthy as ticket giveaways like some other airlines have done,” he said.
