‍DALLAS — Hong Kong Airlines (HX) will relaunch long-haul flights to Vancouver (YVR) and Australia’s Gold Coast (OOL) next year.

The Hong Kong-based (HKG) airline will reintroduce flights to VYR on January 18, 2025. The route will be operated twice a week with an Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Then, from January 17, HX will resume flights to OOL using an Airbus A330-300. This service will be operated four times a week.

The cabins on the A330-300s operating these resumed routes offer a two-class configuration with lie-flat business class seats in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration and a 2-4-2 economy class cabin configuration.

Impact Of Covid-19

The carrier suspended several routes during the pandemic when flight bans and border closures cut demand. However, the airline has been rebuilding its route network. HX says its flight capacity has been fully restored to pre-pandemic levels, with average passenger load factors of around 85 percent.

Furthermore, the airline expects to reach its annual traffic target of more than five million passengers by the end of this year.

By the end of 2024, HX’s fleet will comprise approximately 30 aircraft. To support its growth, HX has added several Airbus A330-300 aircraft to its fleet. It also received its first Airbus A321 aircraft. This is deployed on regional routes.

Before the global pandemic, HX operated a long-haul network to destinations including Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). It operated these flights with Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Due to financial constraints during the pandemic, HX was forced to dispose of all its A350 aircraft and halted the long-haul services operated with them.