Hong Kong Airlines (HX, Hong Kong International) is hunting for more aircraft to satisfy passenger demand but will turn to the used aircraft market as wait times for new aircraft extend into the next decade, vice president Zhan Guicai told Bloomberg. “We need more aircraft,” he said. “We will introduce as many as possible.”
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Hainan Airlines Holding-controlled Hong Kong Airlines operates thirty aircraft, including sixteen A320-200s, three A321-200s, and eleven A330-300s. Zhan said that before COVID-19, the airline had around 50 aircraft. There is strong demand for long-haul flights, he said, as evidenced by the success of the recently launched Hong Kong-Vancouver International service, which is enjoying average passenger loads of 90%.
Zhan said he wanted to build the carrier's long-haul network, including starting more flights to Europe and the US, as well as to Melbourne Airport. Services to Sydney Kingsford Smith are due to start in June. Aside from Vancouver and the soon-to-start Sydney flights, Hong Kong Airlines' network is intra-Asia focused, with a lean towards North Asia.
Zhan says the unpredictability of the used aircraft market makes accurate fleet growth projections difficult. But the airline would like to grow the fleet by one-third in the short term and is currently in talks to lease five to ten aircraft, including narrowbodies and widebodies. However, he adds that Hong Kong Airlines considers the B787-8 too small for its long-haul needs, saying that was why it decided to forego the opportunity to buy 19 of them recently put on the market by parent carrier Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) and China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou).
