Cathay Pacific looking at Tel Aviv flights

According to Israeli media, Cathay Pacific is seriously examining launching new nonstop flights from Hong Kong to TLV-Tel Aviv effective Summer 2016. The carrier would launch services using its soon to be delivered Airbus A350-900s and is expected to be operated 3-4 times per week maximum.

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4653983,00.html

Comments:

Another surprise pulled off by CX but something that holds a bit of merit. In 2014, 72,000 pax flew TLV-HKG-TLV with the average fare being $1900 round trip which means that there is good yield to be exploited here on point to point traffic alone.

The other big Asian markets that CX can tap into via HKG for TLV are as follows:

BKK...105K
ICN...22K
PVG...10K
NRT...12K
PEK...9K
SIN...13K
MNL...5K
TPE...5K
SYD...11K
MEL...12K

Please note that demand to TLV from MNL is not only 5,000 pax annually as majority of them who go on holy pilgrimages buy a return ticket to AMM or IST and then a seperate ticket to TLV on TK or RJ. Hence the number stated above of 5,000 does not reflect the real bigger picture. CX's new potential service can definitely help further stimulate this demand on the MNL-TLV-MNL market sector along with Australia-TLV !