Jordan Cheung remembers every place he went when he spent a summer visiting his sister in Vancouver — Stanley Park, the seawall, Lake Louise….
Years later, Cheung is just the traveller he hopes to convince to fly direct from Hong Kong to Vancouver on Hong Kong Airlines.
Cheung is a regional marketing manager with the airline, which is embarking on an aggressive pricing campaign to establish itself as the new kid on the YVR runway.
Throughout March, Hong Kong Airlines is offering round-trip economy fares of $500 plus taxes. The fare for its business class is $3,150 plus taxes.
Air Canada and Cathay Pacific are the dominant players on the Hong Kong-Vancouver routes, Cheung says. But rather than try to compete with them for existing passengers, Hong Kong Airlines is hoping to encourage new travellers to use the airline.
“We don’t want to steal passengers; we want to build up another sector such as group tours,” he said during Wednesday night's promotional dinner at Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant, with many travel agents invited to the pre-launch celebration.
For Asian travellers, Vancouver is a gateway to North America. YVR already has more airline carriers from mainland China landing here than any other city in North America.
Vancouver is Hong Kong Airlines’ first North American destination but it is planning to expand to New York and Los Angeles. “We want people to stay for two or three days, do some shopping and eating” and explore other “nearby” destinations such as the Rocky Mountains, Cheung says.
Craig Richmond, the president and CEO of the Vancouver airport, says the new daily flights will create 430 jobs at YVR and in the tourism sector, adding $15.5 million in wages and $24 million in gross domestic product. The new carrier will also help YVR reach its target of 25 million travellers by 2020. There are currently 22.3 million people landing in or departing from Vancouver a year, two million more than last year.
“It’s a big deal,” Richmond said.
Cheung praised YVR for being such a welcoming and accommodating host.
“They’re a very good business partner,” he told the Courier. “They’ve supported us a lot to make it happen.”
Just as importantly as its desire to bring new travellers to Vancouver, Hong Kong Airlines wants to become a gateway to Asia and beyond for North American travellers.
The airline has 36 destinations in Asia, some in partnership with other carriers, including eight in Japan. It flies to Beijing three times a day, Shanghai four times a day and Bangkok 37 times a week. You can leave Vancouver at noon and arrive in Bali after midnight (allowing for time differences. The flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong is 12 hours.) Last year it added Cairns, Australia and already flies to Australia’s Gold Coast and Auckland, New Zealand.
“It’s a healthy airline with a very strong future,” said the airline’s Canadian national manager, Barbara Dirnberger in a presentation.
Camera phones came out when three flight attendants surprised the crowd with a graceful demonstration of kung fu, a skill all of the cabin crew have. (The airline didn’t say why kung fu was considered a helpful practice.)
Cabin crew will be tri-lingual in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. The Happy Angels service caters to children aged three to 11 and the airline also has a family zone at the Hong Kong airport. It flies in and out of the midfield terminal.
For travellers there will be a sky bar in both business and economy class, with a self-serve food and beverage service. The business seats recline into 180° beds and the economy seats have a 31-inch seat pitch. The flight numbers are considered to connote good luck: HX081 and HX080.
The daily noon-hour flights begin June 30.
