Hong Kong has long been a pretty exciting city to fly out of. Being based here in quite a while, it’s really nice to have the option to fly airlines’ latest A380s, A350s, and 787s, due to the size of Hong Kong’s market. Hong Kong Airport also gets service from a large number of airlines, which becomes really fascinating, especially when it comes to choosing connections upon flying longhaul.
That said, airlines keep changing their equipment and updating their schedules, and some of these changes get me pretty excited. As the first quarter of 2018 comes to an end, some new aircraft are flying to Hong Kong, which frequent flyers will potentially find really good options.
I thought I’d round up some of these options, all of which I’ve spotted on Airlineroute sometime within the past week.
Hong Kong Airlines will fly their A330 to Kagoshima
Hong Kong Airlines has long been flying an A320 to Kagoshima in a one-class configuration. Soon they plan to offer their A330s to Kagoshima, which becomes a very compelling direct option to an amazing city. No, 6-across angled flat seats aren’t groundbreaking by any means, though they’re a huge step up from A320 economy seats without PTVs.
Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330
Drukair will fly from Paro to Hong Kong
Flying to Bhutan from Hong Kong has always been a pain, so Drukair’s new A319 from Hong Kong to Paro will be a very nice direct option. The product itself isn’t anything special, with 2-2 recliners in business class and 3-3 economy class seats without any sort of inflight entertainment. However, when it comes to destinations like Bhutan, it’s less about the journey and more about the destination.
Etihad will fly their 787 to Hong Kong
Etihad’s 787 is slowly becoming the backbone of the airline’s longhaul fleet, especially for longhaul flights to Asia. However, the 787 never seemed to get to Hong Kong – the Hong Kong to Abu Dhabi route was always operated by their rather dated A330s. While the 787s feature a similar hard product, the A330s have long been reported to be in pretty bad condition, so I’ll try to get myself on the Etihad 787 at least once during my university flying. At the same time, Qatar Airways seems downgrading their Hong Kong flights to their 777s long term, so Etihad will soon gain the upper hand over Qatar Airways for flights between Hong Kong and the Middle East.
Etihad Boeing 787 Singapore Changi Airport
Air Mauritius will fly their A330-900NEO to Hong Kong
I’m pretty excited about this one, as Mauritius is a destination I’d like to visit. The first airline operating an A330NEO to Hong Kong as of now seems to be Air Mauritius, who will fly their A330-900NEO to Hong Kong as of November. I can’t wait to try out their product for myself. Their A350s feature staggered business class seats, so I’m assuming their A330NEOs will feature something similar.
Which route are you most excited to fly?