Cathay Pacific has announced that it’s resuming a route that was “permanently” cut several years back. The timing here is quite interesting, if you ask me.
In this post:
Cathay Pacific’s Hong Kong to Seattle route returns
As of March 30, 2026, Cathay Pacific plans to operate 5x weekly flights between Hong Kong (HKG) and Seattle (SEA), with the following schedule:
CX852 Hong Kong to Seattle departing 1:30PM arriving 10:10AM
CX853 Seattle to Hong Kong departing 11:50AM arriving 4:45PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate in both directions on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The 6,500-mile flight is blocked at 11h40min eastbound and 13hr55min westbound.
Cathay Pacific will use an Airbus A350-900 for the service, featuring 280 seats. This includes 38 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 214 economy class seats.
This new flight is already bookable, and surprisingly, there’s even partner business class award availability, so you can redeem American AAdvantage miles and Alaska Atmos Rewards points. This is quite rare for long haul Cathay Pacific flights nowadays, so if interested, I’d recommend booking ASAP.
Seattle will be Cathay Pacific’s ninth gateway in North America, complementing service to Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Toronto (YYZ), and Vancouver (YVR). In the summer of 2026, Cathay Pacific will operate more than 110 weekly flights to North America.
What makes Cathay Pacific’s return to Seattle interesting
Cathay Pacific’s route to Seattle marks a service resumption rather than a new route. Cathay Pacific first launched this route in March 2019, and it only lasted for around a year, as it was suspended at the start of the pandemic. Then in late 2020, Cathay Pacific revealed that this was one of seven stations that was being cut “permanently,” due to lack of profitability. Other “permanent” cuts in the United States included Newark (EWR) and Washington (IAD). As you’d expect, nothing in the airline industry is actually permanent.
So, why are we now seeing Cathay Pacific resuming flights to Seattle? Well, I have to imagine the airline thinks the economics will work out better than in the past. The airline notes growing demand particularly for the Chinese Mainland and India.
In theory, there’s no reason that Seattle service shouldn’t succeed — it’s the closest US mainland gateway from Hong Kong, Seattle is a large market, and Cathay Pacific has a ton of connectivity in Seattle thanks to its oneworld partner, Alaska.
However, bigger picture, I can’t help but find the timing of this route launching to be quite interesting, and imagine it’s primarily motivated by competitive reasons. The way I see it, there are a couple of interesting competitive dynamics.
First, Delta recently announced it would launch Hong Kong flights, but it’s doing so out of Los Angeles, rather than Seattle. Hong Kong to Los Angeles is a market dominated by Cathay Pacific, and I imagine Delta would be too conservative to also launch Hong Kong flights out of Seattle. Still, I imagine Cathay Pacific adding this service to a Delta hub is a bit of a “nudge” to the carrier, to remind the folks in Atlanta who dominates Hong Kong. 😉
Second, Alaska is currently expanding long haul, turning Seattle into a global gateway. We know that Alaska plans to add 12 long haul routes from Seattle by 2030, and so far we’ve seen Asia service launched to Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Seoul Incheon (ICN). I have to imagine that Hong Kong (HKG) is among the next cities under consideration, so Cathay Pacific probably wants to beat Alaska to the punch.
Some people assume “oh, partner airlines don’t play those kinds of games,” but that’s not the case. Keep in mind the airlines don’t have anti-trust immunity, so there’s zero coordinating in terms of routes, schedules, etc. They’re competitors in the market, just like any other airlines would be.
Bottom line
As of March 2026, Cathay Pacific plans to resume flights to Seattle, with 5x weekly Airbus A350 flights. This is a route that was previously operated in 2019, before being “permanently” cut at the start of the pandemic.
I’m not surprised to see Cathay Pacific resuming this route, both since the market overall has changed a bit in recent years, plus the competitive dynamics have evolved considerably. This comes at a time where Delta is returning to Hong Kong (but out of Los Angeles), while Alaska is turning Seattle into a global gateway.
What do you make of Cathay Pacific returning to Seattle? And competitively, do you think this is more aimed at Alaska or Delta?
Possibly more of a reaction to Starlux expansion.
As for choosing DL over any one of the several high quality east Asian products? Yeah, no.
DL will cut and run from HKG soon enough
actually, UA's 60% Load factors and the tags it added to try to prop them up mean that UA is the loser here.
The Pacific is a cutthroat region of the world for air travel, NW lost money, DL cut back to refocus after HND reopened for TPAC flights, UA threw huge amounts of capacity into the Pacific and still lost money pre-covid, and DL still makes over 1.5X more per ASM than UA.
The...
actually, UA's 60% Load factors and the tags it added to try to prop them up mean that UA is the loser here.
The Pacific is a cutthroat region of the world for air travel, NW lost money, DL cut back to refocus after HND reopened for TPAC flights, UA threw huge amounts of capacity into the Pacific and still lost money pre-covid, and DL still makes over 1.5X more per ASM than UA.
The Pacific comes down to getting the best revenue and having the right plane. UA's 777s are inefficient and the 787s are too small.
DL gets far more corporate revenue and the A350 is simply more capable and efficient.
DL will take larger and larger shares of the Pacific.
AS is the loser along w/ an end to UA's attempts at dominating the Pacific
Sociable flight times in both direction :)
how many times has CX started and stopped SEA? They can HOPE that finances work better this time but the real attack may be on their balance sheet.
DL said when they discontinued SEA-HKG pre-covid that, if they restarted HKG, it would be from NYC because of the finance connection where DL has a strong share of the market.
Covid, the Ukraine war, and the movement of E. Asia financial ties from HKG to...
how many times has CX started and stopped SEA? They can HOPE that finances work better this time but the real attack may be on their balance sheet.
DL said when they discontinued SEA-HKG pre-covid that, if they restarted HKG, it would be from NYC because of the finance connection where DL has a strong share of the market.
Covid, the Ukraine war, and the movement of E. Asia financial ties from HKG to SIN has made HKG a weaker market but DL decided it will fly LAX-HKG - which is an attack on UA.
If DL adds a second route to HKG, it will be NYC which UA flew pre-Ukraine war and the A350 could do now even respecting Russia airspace restrictions but DL chose LAX to take huge amounts of cargo.
The obvious answer is that this hurts AS the most; a weak potential growth route got much more difficult to do.
AS is going to battle it out at NRT for connecting traffic while the local Tokyo traffic flies ANA and DL to HND, AS will be knocked silly to ICN, TPE is overserved, and HKG just got a lot more dicey.
As someone who has experienced both CX and innumerable A350 flights. One would find it hard to believe that discerning passengers will not chose CX over the other carriers on that route.
Sorry Tim …. :-)
CX complements AS's operation. DL will be run out of SEA within 5 years. The hub is deep in the red.
Doubt Alaska sees it that way. They can use the aircraft that was destined for HK on another route and code share on CX's flight. Think it's a win for both Alaska and Cathay
@ Kmct111 -- That's not really how it works, though. A codeshare isn't terribly lucrative for Alaska, since it's not like a joint venture, where there's a high amount of revenue sharing. It's no different than how Alaska is also flying to London Heathrow, despite the route being served by British Airways as well.
Don’t they both benefit from onward connections though, on each carrier respectively?
@Philip
Both ends will benefit from connections with AS on one end now that they're in oneworld hence the schedule adjustment (Similar to DFW). On the other end, it's also perfectly time to connect with destinations in India/Sri Lanka.
Anyone who wants a premium product will fly Delta One from LAX. Delta is a much more premium airline than Cathay.
Good luck Cathay, you will need it.
I actually think that Cathay wants to warn "Hong Kong Airlines", who is really desperate in trying to add Seattle. HX is negotiating some deals to get some 787-8/9 from their parent company and has even started to hire ground agents.
I love the daytime departure times and the flights will work well with their South Asia network, which will be the target of this flight. Redeye from South Asia will connect well to...
I actually think that Cathay wants to warn "Hong Kong Airlines", who is really desperate in trying to add Seattle. HX is negotiating some deals to get some 787-8/9 from their parent company and has even started to hire ground agents.
I love the daytime departure times and the flights will work well with their South Asia network, which will be the target of this flight. Redeye from South Asia will connect well to the early afternoon departure, and the 4/5pm arrival will connect well with CX's evening bank to South Asia. Singapore Airlines must not be too happy though!
75k business points redemption value isn't bad. But whenever you add a connection, it jumps up to 130k! I'd say this were a bug, but it's the same with other partners such as Japan Airlines and Starlux. Also, how do we know what is a bug vs what is working as intended when the Atmos program has very little transparency as far as written rules with regards to redemptions and inconsistency of value from one...
75k business points redemption value isn't bad. But whenever you add a connection, it jumps up to 130k! I'd say this were a bug, but it's the same with other partners such as Japan Airlines and Starlux. Also, how do we know what is a bug vs what is working as intended when the Atmos program has very little transparency as far as written rules with regards to redemptions and inconsistency of value from one partner to another.
Lucky, I know you've been super complimentary of Alaska recently, but would be much appreciated if you can continue pointing out these fairly broken parts of the Atmos program as well.
Good for CX I know who I’d rather fly on that route
They need to to go ATL or MIA. At least somewhere in the southeast. Emirates needs to start service to ATL also. It’s not that hard.
LOL at thinking the logistics of planning 16hr+ flights, is... "not that hard."
The things people write.
Oh please. There are plenty of flights out there that are 16+ hours in today’s world.
Cathay used to have a very vocal desire to serve Miami non-stop, but at the time, the lower-level A350 didn't have the legs nor capacity to do what Cathay wanted.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-01/cathay-interested-in-bigger-airbus-a350-to-reach-miami-non-stop
Now that the A350-1000 can easily hit anywhere in the USA nonstop from Hong Kong with significant payload, I wonder if Cathay is ready to revisit that idea?