Airliners-India.com

[Megatop]

DRAGONAIR TO LAUNCH NEW SERVICE TO BANGALORE, INDIA
15 January 2008


Dragonair today announced that it will fly passengers to India for the first time in May when it launches a new service to Bangalore, a major economic hub that in recent years has become the technology capital of India.

The service to Bangalore will commence on May 1, 2008 with daily flights operated by A330-300 aircraft. The launch of the destination will open up new opportunities for people travelling between Hong Kong and the thriving southern region of India.

"We are excited to be able to announce our entry into the huge Indian market. This is a very important step for Dragonair and a major development in Hong Kong’s role as a leading international aviation hub," said Dragonair Chief Executive Officer Kenny Tang.

"With a daily service to and from Bangalore we can use Hong Kong’s hub advantage to connect travellers onto Dragonair’s extensive network of destinations in Mainland China as well as the international network of our sister airline Cathay Pacific."

Bangalore will be the seventh new destination to be launched since Dragonair became part of the Cathay Pacific Group in September 2006. In the past year the airline has also launched scheduled services to Phuket, Busan, Fukuoka, Sendai and Kathmandu, and a daily charter service to Taichung in Taiwan.


Boost for Hong Kong hub as Cathay Pacific strengthens services to India
15 January 2008


Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that it will significantly enhance its schedule to India beginning 29 February, with more flights added to its existing services to Delhi and Mumbai and the launch of a new destination, Chennai.

The enhanced services - a total of 20 new flights a week by early June - to one of the world’s fastest-growing economies will serve to further boost Hong Kong's position as a leading international aviation hub.

Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said: "We are very excited indeed about being able to boost our services to India - something we have been striving to do for decades. With our home in Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific is ideally positioned to act as the natural carrier of choice for passengers travelling to and from one of the world's fastest growing markets, India. The opportunities for Hong Kong as a leading international aviation hub are very clear."

Cathay Pacific's services to Mumbai and Delhi will both become a daily operation from 29 February with the addition of three more flights a week to each city. The extra flights to Mumbai will continue on to Dubai.

From the beginning of the summer schedule on 30 March, the airline will add a further three flights a week to Mumbai, taking the number of flights to the city to 10 a week. At the same time, another daily flight will be added to Delhi, making a total of 14 flights a week. And on 1 June Cathay Pacific will add Chennai, India's fourth-largest metropolitan city, to its network with four flights a week.

Details of the flight numbers and schedules for the services are still being finalised and will be published in due course.

Cathay Pacific began flying to India 25 years ago, launching a passenger service to Mumbai in January 1982. Delhi was added as a passenger destination in March 2001 and the airline also operates scheduled freighter flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

In addition to the Cathay Pacific India enhancements, sister airline Dragonair will launch a daily flight to Bangalore, the country's information technology hub, on 1 May, using an A330-300 aircraft.

[Megatop]

dragon at BLR is quite odd, cathay was expected to take up the baton.

& the chinese torture, southie vegetarians r scared of finding an octopus dumpling disguised in a manchurian dish. someone teach them what vegan & veg means in indian context.

a daily 333 seems way too optimistic; but ideal for china.

anyways, good for BLR, mainly coz SQ wud lower its fares to maintain its stronghold.

unless worthwhile, i'm better off on my BLR-SIN-SFO jaunts.

[Megatop]

skeds up!

BLR Daily

Dragonair (KA 153)
dep: 01:40 - Bangalore (BLR) terminal
arr: 10:10 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
equipment: Airbus Industrie A330

Dragonair (KA 152)
dep: 21:40 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
arr: 00:40 - Bangalore (BLR) terminal
equipment: Airbus Industrie A330


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAA - Tu, Th, Sa, Su

Cathay Pacific (CX 632)
dep: 01:10 - Chennai (Madras) (MAA) terminal
arr: 09:20 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
equipment: Airbus Industrie A330

Cathay Pacific (CX 631)
dep: 21:05 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
arr: 23:50 - Chennai (Madras) (MAA) terminal
equipment: Airbus Industrie A330

both seem to connect to CX's 2nd daily to SFO with roughly 2 hrs layover. some good fare deals awaited though.

Cathay Pacific (CX 870)
dep: 14:10 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
arr: 11:35 - San Francisco (SFO) terminal I
equipment: Boeing 747-400

Cathay Pacific (CX 879)
dep: 13:35 - San Francisco (SFO) terminal I
arr: 18:40 - Hong Kong (HKG) terminal 1
equipment: Boeing 747-400

no reason to court LH anymore, the KA-CX combine gets there in same or lesser time & with one world status.

[avbuff]

DEL - HKG goes double daily

CX 753 HKG - DEL 2255 0205
CX 752 DEL - HKG 0325 1125


&

CX 639 HKG - DEL 0915 1225
CX 638 DEL - HKG 1445 2250

both operated by A330-300


BOM - HKG has an assorted schedule

CX 683 HKG - BOM 2110 0040 Tu Fr Sa
CX 682 BOM - HKG 0200 1015 We Sa Su

operated by A330-300

CX 685 HKG - BOM 0825 1155 Mo Tu Fr
CX 684 BOM - HKG 0645 1500 Tu We Sa

operated by a B773
this flight continues onwards to DXB

CX751/750 remain as it is.

this means there is a new 3 weekly BOM - DXB introduced as well.
which means 7weekly BOM - DXB flights ..

[avbuff]

Flight CX 685/684 goes as follows

CX 685

HKG - BOM 0825 1155
BOM - DXB 1305 1425

CX 684

DXB - BOM 0110 0535
BOM - HKG 0645 1500

[nalini123]

Good for CX, and bad for AI.

I just cannot digest the fact how did the GOI allow extra flights to DXB, making it daily. And stopping Indian carriers from flying to UAE. Utter nonsense.

Out of the 8 possible DXB flights out of BOM we just have 3 indian carriers 2 IC , and 1 AI. Rest all foreign carriers, and to top it all foreign carriers bring in A330's and B773's to which IC/AI gladly respond by an A320/A310.

[nalini123]

Also CX is doing a good thing by offering convinient connections to US west coast. Now it's not only SQ but also CX in a major fight of passengers to west coast.

It will be nice to see 4 good airlines fighting on this India US west coast route .. 9W,SQ,CX,IT

[PlaneLover]

MH and TG also offer service to the US west coast. Some people consider service on these airlines to be decent if not the best.

[sshank]

Also works with UA flights to SFO and ORD.

UA 895 Dep: ORD at 12:17 , Term: 1 Arr: HKG at 17:55 Term: 1 744
UA 896 Dep: HKG at 11:40 , Term: 1 Arr: ORD at 11:50 Term: 5 744

UA 869 Dep: SFO at 11:57 , Term: I Arr: HKG at 18:45 Term: 1 744
UA 862 Dep: HKG at 12:50 , Term: 1 Arr: SFO at 8:32 Term: 1 744

[Megatop]

[Jaysit]

[texdravid]

If BLR is the more desirable location to fly to from Hong Kong, then why Dragonair to BLR, while MAA (which is not daily) gets the standard CX service?

Isn't CX/Dragonair doing this thing backward?

Just sayin'.

Well, most Madrasis won't complain. Another way to travel to MAA from the U.S. and many western Indian Americans will use this service.
_________________
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan

Proud Conservative in exile, soon to reawaken...

Charter member, Indians against Obama

[ryder1650]

Does the double daily DEL flight mean that there will be good connections to the both of the double daily HKG-SFO flights that CX offers?

[BOMboy]

Why does the bilateral restrict CX to just 10 weekly BOM flights instead of a convenient 14 like DEL?

[Nimish]

Wow - this is going to be the biggest competition to AI or IT's BLR-SFO service - since this is now going to be a one-stop with "Asian" service on board, and good connection times at both ends.

IMO, SQ will do something to improve it's connection capabilities, but I still see them eventually loosing out this race due to the one-stop vs. 2 stop time and hassle difference.

Which of the 333s do they plan to fly to India? http://www.dragonair.com/da/en_INTL/whatonboard/fleet/a_330_300

[Nimish]

[nalini123]

[Nimish]

Looking at this from the FFP perspective:

If you're an Asia Miles FFP member, then:

From: http://www.asiamiles.com/en/earn/airlines/partners/1,,118606,00.html

[andrew]

FINALLY after 25 years of waiting CX has committed to India in a big way.

Fantastic increase in scheds... but the BOM enhancements are still a hoch poch in that you're really goign to have to pick your flight to ensure you're not going thru BKK....

It seems more like CX being forced to move quickly all of a sudden due to the increased expansion plans by 9W and the very hearty resposne given to 9W by Indian travellers..... They have noved to connect MAA and BLR to the west coast prior to 9W doing so..... My expectation is that when 9W launces BLR HKG and if it joins One World, KA will pull out.

However I hope they find much success with their new plans in India. Would have been beter to see CX come to BLR and KA go to say, Pune.

[Nimish]

[avbuff]

KA is a full fledged carrier, they have F , J products offered.

Their A330-300's are configured with F/J/Y and also J/Y so , I really think they are a full service carrier. Service wise let's see probably some skytrax reviews can give a general idea.

[sri_bom]

[nalini123]

[Nimish]

[Megatop]

dragon is fine to boot with, but the issue (or not) is gate conn in the melting pot aka chek lap kok.

i envision all CX birds together followed by dragon in the expansive terminal.

dragon also has a strict indian veg option. pretty decent.

but i still feel CX would eventually takeover once they get their new 333s.

btw, dragon is bringing its 333s with only J & Y cabins to BLR, no F; & 1 hour is pretty tight for a BLR turnaround even at the new BIAL.

[Nimish]

[sshank]

I flew Dragon a few years back from PVG to HKG - they were fine. After flying random Chinese carriers within China they were actually a breath of fresh air. They were however foxed by the veg meal request and I got something barely edible - I assume that now they are under CX ownership and the BLR flight would be catered out of HKG (CX does these things very well) it should be fine.

[Megatop]

[BOMboy]

[Nimish]

Flights loaded onto the GDS now!! Does not seem like there's a code share with CX on the BLR-HKG sector.

SFO Connections:

[stealthpilot]

Nimish, is it the 2 class layout with 30 or 42 J seats?
_________________
eP007

[Nimish]

[G-BYGB]

So Dragonair will be the first one to take the advantage of new bilateral agreement b/w India and HKG.

About five years back if I'am not wrong CX had shown its intrest to fly to BLR
If this route indeed does well for dragon air, then we'll see 9W and IT operating to west coast of US via HKG.
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www.flickr.com/G-BYGB photos

[Megatop]

[Jaysit]

[LAXDESI]

[nalini123]

[Jaysit]

Well, what I said was that it would be very difficult to make it work. There would be a very small margin for delays due to weather conditions in Europe (winter storms) or India (monsoon rains).

I guess I understand why Jet wants to make Shanghai an Eastern hub. Frankly, a BLR-PVG-SFO and a BOM-PVG-LAX flight would be perfect (assuming that PVG is in fact established as a hub) and Jet gets traffic rights.

[LAXDESI]

[nalini123]