Cathay Pacific to expand India and Hong Kong services significantly
17 Apr 2008
Cathay Pacific Airways has said that it is significantly expanding its services to and from India following the conclusion of a new air services agreement between Hong Kong SAR and Indian governments in December last year. Cathay said it will have an additional 20 flights a week between the two Asiatic destinations by June.
Cathay Pacific's chief executive, Tony Tyler, said, ''When we received the news that the Indian and Hong Kong governments had reached an agreement to expand services between the two places we were naturally delighted – for our airline and also for the Hong Kong hub that we have been working so hard to develop over the years.''
''Hong Kong is a superb hub but there is no doubt that it was under-served in terms of flights to and from India. That situation has improved drastically now and the flights being added by Cathay Pacific and Indian carriers will help to realise the full potential of trade and tourism between Hong Kong and India.''
The number of flights to Delhi has already increased from four a week to 14 a week, while six more flights have been added to Mumbai making a total of 10 per week.
In addition, a new four-times-weekly service from the city of Chennai will launch on 3 June, while Cathay Pacific's sister airline Dragonair will launch a new daily service to Bangalore in late May.
Tyler added that while the main focus of the service expansion has been on passenger flights, Cathay Pacific has also shown a clear commitment to expanding freighter services to and from India. He pointed out that the freighter service had been started with just one flight a week routed through Mumbai in 1994. The service now operates a total of 22 freighters a week to the country and has become the number one foreign carrier in terms of cargo capacity and tonnage offered in the Indian market.
