Well that didn’t last long!
Just five months ago, on May 2, 2018, Cathay Pacific commenced non stop services from Hong Kong to Copenhagen, as part of a major European expansion which also included new services to Dublin and Brussels.
The flight operated seasonally (over the northern summer), three times per week with the following schedule:
- CX227 Hong Kong to Copenhagen departing 1:10AM arriving 6:30AM [Mon, Wed, Fri]
- CX226 Copenhagen to Hong Kong departing 1:55PM arriving 6:35AM (+1 day) [Mon, Wed, Fri]
The flight was operated by a three class Airbus A350 (with business, premium economy and economy). It operated from May to the end of October of this year, so it’s still operating for a few more weeks this year.
The seasonal route was then supposed to recommence in May 2019, to run until (at least) October 2019.
Unfortunately Airline Route is reporting that Cathay Pacific has updated their northern summer 2019 schedules, and the Copenhagen route has been discontinued altogether.
It will continue to run until the end of this month but will not return at all next year.
SAS announced they would also commence flying the route after an almost 20 year absence on the same day the Cathay Pacific’s seasonal route paused (October 28 of this year), moving their Stockholm to Hong Kong flight to operate from Copenhagen instead with a five weekly service.
Bottom line
This is a shame, as Copenhagen is possibly my favourite European city.
I suspect that the route did not perform particularly well for Cathay Pacific during the busier summer months and with SAS starting the route as soon as Cathay Pacific paused it for winter (with a similar timetable), Cathay realised there was not enough demand for two carriers on the same route at the same time, even during the norther summer.
It is interesting how it went from no carriers operating the route non stop, to two carriers (SAS and Cathay) suddenly operating the route, although not at the same time.
Would you prefer to fly Cathay Pacific or SAS between Hong Kong and Copenhagen?
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