Hong Kong Airlines has been on the brink of going out of business for a while now, as the airline has been unable to pay staff, has had to shut off inflight entertainment, and has had to axe routes and return planes. Earlier this week the airline was given a critical deadline by the Air…
Continue reading: Hong Kong Airlines Gets Cash Injection
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Is this a shot across the bow for Cathay Pacific? Hong Kong Airlines is by no means a complete direct competitor with Cathay, but their collapse would most certainly benefit CX if it were to happen.
With CX's supposedly lax position on the protests and such - and their tenuous relationship with the mainland - is the orchestrated funding of HX this a way for China to keep the pressure on CX? After all, with the protests going on for so long it would look pretty bad on the mainland for the HNA-owned airline to falter, while Cathay - with it's strong Hong Kong identity - to survive.
There are rumours that in order to make the balance sheets of HNA look good, Hong Kong Airlines (which isn’t listed) has been used as the scrape goat of HNA’s debts. Either way, it is a much larger problem than just the issue of Hong Kong Airlines...
@david - it has always been so. Hong Kong Airlines was initially called "China Rich Airlines" and was purchased by HNA in 2006, whereafter it changes the name to Hong Kong Airlines. It is a Chinese airline all along.
That “ four billion CNY“ is designated for Hong Kong Airlines only, can’t use on any other HNA company. Apparently, they think HX is way more important to HNA.
Do you think it's wise to book a flight with HK airlines for a trip next weekend?
I flew with Hong Kong airlines in June last time and when we were descending into the Hong Kong airport the landing was creepy, you could feel the plane dropping several times as if we were going down a staircase, I've flown dozens of times in many places and different types of aircraft and had never felt a landing that strange, it startled everyone in the cabin, we were in an A330 coming in from Beijing.
4 Billion loan is just going to equal more debt if the HNA group in general can't get their cash flow in the right direction.
As for HNA's international partners, I can see them start to look elsewhere. VA for example may had possibly looked at putting forward the axing of the MEL-HKG route had HX gone broke sooner.