British Airways will halve its service between London and Hong Kong to one flight a day from October due to rising cost for fuel and manpower caused by Russian airspace restrictions.
A spokeswoman for the carrier told the Post on Friday the company would “temporarily” cut by half its Hong Kong service from October 27.
Some industry leaders said fewer flights meant the potential of higher fares from rival Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways.
At present, the British airline runs two daily flights between Heathrow airport in London and Hong Kong, while Cathay operates five return-flights. Generally, British Airways flights are cheaper than the Cathay ones.
“We regularly review our global schedule and we have decided to temporarily reduce our Hong Kong service to one flight a day, from 27 October 2024,” she said.
“We are contacting any affected customers so they can rebook on to our other flight or have a full refund.”
The spokeswoman cited rising operation costs due to a longer journey caused by the Russian airspace restrictions.
“Like other UK carriers, we are not able to use Russian airspace which means our flight time is considerably longer, this also adds cost through fuel and staffing,” she said.
“This is a temporary measure during our winter service 2024 and summer service 2025 … We will keep this under review.”
The service adjustment comes after the UK airline rolled out plans in March to re-establish its presence in Asian markets such as Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan in the coming years.
The move is part of the carrier’s £7 billion (HK$69.5 billion) transformation plan, the largest in its history, and includes a new aircraft as well as enhanced services.
British Airways resumed services from London to Shanghai and Beijing last summer. It currently runs two daily flights between London and Hong Kong, another one with Shanghai and four a week with Beijing.
But many overseas airlines have been caught in the crossfire of war after Western countries announced the closure of their respective airspaces to Russian aircraft following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin subsequently retaliated by restricting airlines from 36 countries in Europe and North America from flying over its skies.
Since many Asian states including mainland China have generally avoided similar sanctions, Cathay has still managed to use the Russian airspace without affecting its flight times and fuel costs.
Law Cheung-kwok, senior adviser at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Aviation Policy Research Centre, said there was a possibility that Cathay might raise air fares following a decline in supply of direct flights between the two places.
He pointed out that Cathay had a competitive edge over British Airways, as the city’s flag carrier enjoyed a shorter journey time of about 12 hours, compared with 14 hours by the latter.
“With decreasing supply of direct flights between Hong Kong and London, theoretically there is room for Cathay to raise air fares,” Law said.
However, Law assured that passengers would not need to swallow higher fares as they still had a lot of choices such as transit services with cheaper airfares.
“This route is highly competitive with many choices of transit services by different airlines,” he said.
He also advised Cathay to consider operating a direct flight service at Gatwick airport to serve more Hongkongers as part of its “social responsibility”.
