Cathay Pacific

[ethanegcc]

Boston currently has a 4 weekly 77W operation with Cathay Pacific, like MAN and today according to airlineroutes.com it has been announced it will be increased to 7 weekly 77W. So, they have obviously sourced more aircraft to operate this increase, perhaps when the next few 77W become available the same increase will happen to MAN's operation?

Is there any update to their desire to upgrade MAN? Perhaps there was some competition as to who would get thsee additional 77W between MAN and BOS?

And, as a reply to the previous comments, I would agree with Dobbo that they should consolidate their MAN operation first and even then with the BE feed, EDI seems unlikely.

 

[Dobbo]

I'm sure there was competition as there is across all networks.

They will have seen SQ's change and may choose to react. These things take time and planning so I wouldn't expect anything imminently.

Perhaps we will see something in 2017.

 

[ethanegcc]

I really hope so. All of the flights seem full, in all classes. CX have repeatedly expressed interest in adding capacity to the route. It would be great to get 7 weekly, year round.

Perhaps we will see something in winter for S17 or perhaps even later, but the same goes for HU - to have 14 weekly services to China would be outstanding,

 

[Dobbo]

Some relatively recent news from CX, see page 18:

• Our London and Manchester routes were adversely affected by the weakness of sterling and strong competition. We are maintaining our market share on United Kingdom routes.

http://www.cathaypacific.com/conten...nual-reports/en/2016_cx_interim_report_en.pdf


EDIT: I should add that the report immediately preceding this one explained that demand for London and Manchester was "strong in all classes".

 

[Land23R]

Following Dobbo's link to that CX interim report, I thought it may be of interest to see how the MAN loads compared to the figures given in that report for Europe.

For the 6 months to 30 June this year, based on the CAA stats, MAN's LF was 85.8%, very similar to the 86.1% LF quoted for Europe.
Europe's LF had dropped 2 points from 88.1% in the same period last year while MAN had dropped rather less from 86.6%. However, it should be borne in mind that the MAN service only started in Dec. 2014.

For MAN, the lowest LFs were in April and May which were down about 5% on the previous year. June's fall was only 2.3%.

Overall though, MAN is not out of kilter, and 60,098 pax carried in the 6 months is pretty impressive. When the CAA get their act together, we'll be able to see what impact if any the start of HU had on CX for the full months of July/Aug, HU starting part way through June.

 

[Dobbo]

I don't know whether CX's customers are net inbound or net outbound to the UK.

If they are net outbound, I think that taking bookings in £ will have impacted the yield (as opposed to the raw numbers).

 

[Dobbo]

Cathay are obviously not having an easy time at the global level.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...-scraps-profit-forecast-announces-rev-430336/

Although this reflects wider group performance, individual routes/flights can perform better or worse. It would be interesting to hear if the MAN flute falls into the former or latter...

 

[User001]

If current yield both pax and cargo is anything to go by, the MAN flights should be fine.

It's whether they actually need that extra capacity at LGW in the face of 5 daily CX and 5 daily VS/BA that will be the test.

 

[Dobbo]

So the slot grab at LGW (as opposed to the extra 4x rotations at MAN) may actually be an economically poor move in the short term from CX?

 

[Dobbo]

Might as well pick up the CX discussion here.

CX plan to go daily from 1 June 2017 on the A359. No tag, and I don't believe the flight times change.

 

[ethanegcc]

From MAN's facebook - celebrating two years of CX flights:

 

[ethanegcc]

View attachment 4268

 

[ethanegcc]

View attachment 4269

 

[User001]

CX is now confirmed at 5 weekly for next summer from 1st June:

Slightly disappointed if I'm being honest, expected daily at the very minimum. Gatwick goes daily from 1st June also.

 

[Chilly Dog]

Hmm! And on an A350. So an increase in frequency, and in J and W class seats but no net increase in economy!

GDS also shows reverting to 4 x weekly 77W from the start of the Winter 17/18 timetable, but this may just be delay in updating.

 

[User001]

Yes Winter will not be updated at this time.

I suppose it's a vote of confidence that it's the premium cabins getting increased (the 'no premium demand' argument strikes again)

Like I say, I was expecting daily, and CX certainly applied for daily flights, it's very out of character for them to apply for more slots than they need, but, I'm sure there is a reason for it.

 

[Chilly Dog]

I'm not seeing LGW frequency updated in the GDS yet - so perhaps updates not yet finalised?

 

[Land23R]

It is disappointing compared to expectations and is perhaps why some of us tend to be a little cautious on here.
I assume it's still going to be the A35O. Is LGW's daily an A350 also? It does seem they are ahead of MAN in CX's pecking order.

 

[Chilly Dog]

CX Press Release

 

[Land23R]

Based on seat guru for the A359, it looks like 30 extra J class, 12 more in P/E and 2 less in E per week.
A net gain of 40 seats, or 3%. But the increase in Business is nearly 19%.