Cathay Pacific A350 Latest Route Updates

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UPDATE: Please Refer To This Post For Latest Cathay Pacific A350 Route News

Cathay Pacific took delivery of its first Airbus A350 earlier this week and it hasn’t taken the Hong Kong based airline very long to add the new aircraft to a few more of its routes.

Although the schedules have been very fluid up until now, we’ve known for a while that Hong Kong – Manila would be the aircraft’s first flight and that the A350 would then go on to operate on routes to Taipei, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore (schedule details here) before being added to some longer haul routes.

Well, now we know what those routes are.

In Cathay Pacific latest schedule upload the airline has added the A350 to the following routes:

Hong Kong – Auckland

Auckland the way I found it – great views and lots of rain!

From 27 October 2016 (was 30 October) the A350 will take over this route from an A340-300 and will fly on the following schedule:

27 Oct – 30 Nov 2016 & 1 March 2017 onwards

CX197 HKG 21:25 – 13:15+ 1 day AKL (Daily)
CX198 AKL 14:50 – 21:00 HKG (Daily)

1 Dec  – 28 Feb 2017

CX117 HKG 15:25 – 07:35+ 1 day AKL (Daily)
CX118 AKL 09:00 – 15:25 HKG (Daily)

This is a nice upgrade for travelers to New Zealand. Both the A340 and the A350 come with a 28 seat Premium Economy cabin but the A350 has 12 more Business Class seats and both of the premium cabins are considerably newer.

Hong Kong – Paris

From 31 October 2016 Cathay Pacific will be deploying an Airbus A350 (in place of a Boeing 777-300ER) on the Hong Kong – Paris route with the following schedule:

CX279 HKG 09:50 – 16:05 CDG (Mon,Thurs, Sat)
CX278 CDG 20:10 – 14:55 HKG (Mon,Thurs, Sat)

Cathay Pacific currently flys two 777-300 aircraft on this route – one with and one without a first class cabin. The aircraft being replaced is the one without First Class so Cathay Pacific will not be removing its premier cabin from the Paris route.

Hong Kong – Rome

Rome the way I found it – lots of history and lots of traffic!

The last of the new routes (for now) is the Hong Kong – Rome route which is currently operated by a 777-300ER 4x a week. From 31 October 2016 the A350 will take over the only non-stop route Cathay Pacific flys between the two cities:

CX293 HKG 00:00 – 06:35 FCO (Mon,Wed, Fri, Sat)
CX292 CDG 12:25 – 06:50+ 1 day HKG (Mon,Wed, Fri, Sat)

As with the Paris route the 777 that’s being replaced was one with a First Class cabin so there’s no loss there.

As for the Business Class cabin…it really depends what source you believe. SeatGuru claims the 777 that’s being replaced has 40 Business Class seats while the ExpertFlyer seat map shows just 36. The A350 sits in the middle of those two figures with a cabin of 38 seats so you decide if that’s better or worse 🙂

The Premium Economy cabin on the A350 has 4 fewer seats than the 777 it is replacing but I don’t expect that to make a material difference to too many people.

Bottom Line

All the schedules I’ve posted above are subject to change and, while I’ll do my best to keep up with Cathay’s tinkering, I suggest you do your own research before making a booking based on the information above.

It’s great to see Cathay Pacific rolling out their new aircraft as quickly as they are – after an uneasy last 12 months the airline could do with a bit of stability and good news…perhaps the A350 will fill that role?