The low-cost Hong Kong based airline, Hong Kong Express Airways - known as HK express, has admitted it has wide-body aircraft ambitions in order to make the best use of the limited slots at Hong Kong and to expand its rosta of destinations served.
The chief executive officer of Hong Kong Express Airways, the sister company of Hong Kong Airlines and part-owned by massive Chinese HNA Group, spoke to the media today, Tuesday regarding his plans for the airlines' development.
“I think we will certainly progress to wide-bodies,” Andrew Cowen said, “One solution to the slots constraints is to perhaps do fewer frequencies but with widebodies. Obviously widebodies would also allow us to go further afield.”
The low-cost carrier already flies to 28 destinations in mainland China and other countries in the region including Vietnam, Japan and Thailand. They fly a fleet of narrow-body Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft across their route network, however, expansion is limited to the lack of availability of slots at Hong Kong.
The airline remains tight-lipped regarding earnings and loads says capacity has increased over the year, but due to heavy discounting by all airlines in the region, doubts it will be in profit by the end of the year.
There is no clear indication of when any such wide-body aircraft would be arriving with the airline or indeed which type they would opt for. The current favourite is understood to be the A350 XWB aircraft.
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