Here’s one that really surprised me at first, but makes perfect sense after further consideration.
Cathay Pacific announced today that they’ll launch 4x weekly flights (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays) between Hong Kong and Dusseldorf as of September 1, 2015.
The flight will be operated by a four class 777-300ER (meaning it will feature first class, business class, premium economy, and economy), and operate with the following schedule:
CX375 Hong Kong to Dusseldorf departing 12:50AM arriving 7:15AM
CX376 Dusseldorf to Hong Kong departing 1:20PM arriving 6:35AM (+1 day)
At first I was a bit confused. Cathay Pacific doesn’t fly to Munich, Seattle, Miami, Philadelphia, etc., all of which have been rumored, so Dusseldorf just sort of seems to come out of left field.
But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Dusseldorf is an airberlin hub, so in addition to any origin & destination traffic, it’s a practical hub for connecting on oneworld within Europe.
However, the amount of new service that has been announced to Dusseldorf lately outside of oneworld/Etihad is what actually puzzles me:
- Emirates will soon launch A380 service there
- ANA launched service there
- Thai was going to launch service there (though it looks like they didn’t actually, because, well, Thai Airways)
I guess oddly I understand the Cathay Pacific expansion, given their membership in oneworld. But I don’t quite get all the other growth among airlines to Dusseldorf. It’s the seventh largest city in Germany, though I guess it’s sort of a financial hub.
The most surprising part of the announcement is that the flight will be operated by a four class 777-300ER — I would have expected them to use a three class 777 instead.
Bottom line
This is fantastic news for oneworld flyers. While airberlin doesn’t have the most glamorous intra-Europe product, it’s nice to be able to connect to a Cathay Pacific flight out of a oneworld hub that isn’t Heathrow.
Great news! Thanks for this one!
ANA has been operating to DUS since S14 AFAIK, below link is confirming this.
https://www.ana.co.jp/eng/aboutana/press/2013/131218.html
Or is there another route they have recently announced, perhaps KIX-DUS ?
@ Wolfgang -- Good catch, fixed!
As Tim said its not just Dusseldorf its the region. There are over 11 million people in the region of 9700km2. For comparison Sydney has 4.7 million people over 12000km2.
Its more to do with the fact that European cities usually only include the city proper whereas US and Australian cites incorporate the surrounds into population.
@ Rachid: W hotel in Kowloon is really nice. Next to a large high-end shopping mall, and only 20 min from the airport using the express train.
@M - Pretty much everyone only has economy intra-Europe (blocking the middle seat and giving out granola bars does not make it business class)
The only bad part is that AB has only coach for intra-Europe flights.
It looks like DUS will become quite the OneWorld hub. Frankly, I welcome this since DUS is a very smooth airport for transiting, far cheaper than LHR, and well connected for intra-europe travel. Since MUC and FRA are strong Star cities, CDG and AMS strong Sky, and TXL/SXF still a complete mess, DUS makes a lot of sense. This should give us many more options for travel on to Asia and the Middle East.
As others have mentioned, it's not about the City Düsseldorf. It's about the Rhine-Ruhr area, where more than 1/8th of Germany's population live.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr
Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich metropolitan areas only have half the population (~5 million each) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_regions_in_Germany
In addition to that, this airport also draws a lot of customers from the Netherlands. You can't miss the countless yellow (=Dutch) license plates in the car parks - especially when you take the...
As others have mentioned, it's not about the City Düsseldorf. It's about the Rhine-Ruhr area, where more than 1/8th of Germany's population live.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Ruhr
Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich metropolitan areas only have half the population (~5 million each) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_regions_in_Germany
In addition to that, this airport also draws a lot of customers from the Netherlands. You can't miss the countless yellow (=Dutch) license plates in the car parks - especially when you take the Airport's train between the car parks and the terminal.
DUS serves the entire Rhein Ruhr area, which is a metropolitan area with over 11 million inhabitants (the largest metro area in Germany, by far; it is way bigger than Greater Berlin or the Frankfurt/Rhein-Main area for example). Plus many people from the Netherlands and Belgium tend to fly out of DUS.
What will happen once BER goes into service? Any info on international carriers taking up slots?
Ben,
Which hotel would you recommend for Hong Kong using either SPG or Club Carlson points?
Thanks
@ Rachid -- As far as SPG goes, W is awesome if you have enough points. Haven't done any Club Carlson properties there, though.
Air Berlin probably sealed the deal, bit the whole area is all of the above, but also connected via rail to a much of its surroundings, which makes the deal even better.
The whole Rhine Ruhr region is a sprawling population center with historical manufacturing and mining and other industry (hence heavy WW II bombing). And as above, the NRW is a wealthy region. Dusseldorf and Koln are both worth extended visits and are gateways to the Rhine region to the south - go and learn about the competing beer styles before seeing some castles!
Dusseldorf airport serves one of the largest - if not the largest - metropolitan areas in Germany (think for example about Cologne, a bigger city than Dusseldorf). If they are adding a destination after Frankfurt, it makes sense, plus being a Air Berlin hub.
Düsseldorf is known as really wealthy city. So...great for CX in regard to their premium seats. Furthermore CX will have a USP, as neither TG nor SQ fly to DUS.
Also helps the herds of tourists traveling between southeast Asia/China and Europe. I believe China Airlines has the only other direct flight. More routes like this are going to have to be added for European and Asian carriers to compete with the ME3.
Just a small notice, Düsseldorf features the biggest japanese community of Germany - maybe their target group are connecting passengers to southeast Asia.
Well, Düsseldorf may be just the seventh largest city in Germany, but the airport serves Germany's most densely populated region and no fewer than 9 of Germany's largest 20 cities are within fewer than 100 kilometers from this airport, so IMHO it absolutely makes sense.
That is just CX being weird.
Too bad it this route starts after my holiday plans.
Just of the record Ben, a lot of growth in Dusseldorf is the effect of Dutch& Belgian legislators to increase taxes on flights departing from here. When you are closer to the german border than Amsterdam/Brussels you'de be fool flying with KLM/Brussels in economy that is way below emirates/cathay standards etc ;)