Cathay Dragon to Fly to Davao
Cathay Pacific subsidiary Cathay Dragon will open up a Davao-Hong Kong flight on October 28.
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| Image source: G B_NZ/Wikimedia |
When launched, the flight will operate every Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays using an Airbus A320 aircraft. KA347 will depart Hong Kong at 12.35 pm and arrive in Davao at 3.50 pm, while its return counterpart, KA348, will depart Davao at 4.50 pm and arrive back in Hong Kong at 8 pm.
At the same time, Cathay Dragon also announced that it will open up a flight to the city of Medan, Indonesia on October 29.
According to Rob Bradshaw, Philippine country manager for Cathay Pacific, the carrier is 'thrilled' to grow its presence in the country by adding Davao to the group's network.
According to Cathay Pacific Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Paul Loo, “Davao City and Medan are key trade and tourism centres in their respective regions and each looks set play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative. As such, both present exciting opportunities for business and leisure travellers alike". He added that “Our convenient new services will capture the demand from Hong Kong and beyond, while at the same time providing customers in the Philippines and Indonesia with more options when connecting to the Cathay Pacific Group’s extensive Mainland China and international networks.”
With an arrival into Hong Kong at 8 pm, passengers from Davao that are not bound for Hong Kong can choose from a wide array of connecting flights to the US and Europe. Additionally, this allows passengers headed to or coming from the southern Philippines to bypass the busy Ninoy Aquino International Airport, thus saving time.
Founded in 1985 as Dragonair, Cathay Dragon currently has a presence in Manila and Clark. Meanwhile, its parent company also has a daily flight between Hong Kong and Cebu in addition to the multiple daily flights it offers between Hong Kong and Manila.
With this development, Cathay Dragon becomes the first carrier to operate flights between Davao and Hong Kong. Hong Kong also becomes the third international destination that passengers can fly to from Davao. Currently, SilkAir (Singapore Airlines' regional subsidiary) and AirAsia offer flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, respectively.
Source: Cathay Pacific, ABS-CBN
Great news! But I wish they would start with 2 flights a week to make sure the planes are well filled and financially sustainable and THEN expend to 3,4,5,6 flights a week as per demand (or alternate between DVO and Medan). It takes a while until people know about the new connection. That's the problem that AirAsia had with DVO-KUL: They had 4 flights a week and then cancelled the whole thing this August, because the planes weren't full enough. What a pity. I can imagine this has something to do with landing fees or staff logistics, so I guess this is what needs to be improved to make it easier to launch new connections.
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