Cathay CEO: Cathay unlikely to return to Gatwick in short term, could allow Starlux to join oneworld

On Wednesday, Cathay Pacific unveiled its new Aria Suite business class. At the unveiling in Hong Kong, I managed to catch Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam and ask him a few questions, including whether they had any plans to expand services to London.

The image below is not me asking Ronald questions, by the way ….

Cathay is unlikely to return to Gatwick

“At London Heathrow we have five daily flights, which is a very strong frequency. Five flights a day for 13 hour flights is actually a lot, when you think about it. So, yeah, we’re happy with what we have. And London Heathrow is slot constrained, so we cannot get slots there anyway.”

What about Gatwick? Cathay Pacific previously operated to the secondary London airport pre-covid. Notably, Singapore Airlines launched flights to Gatwick this summer and is increasing it to a daily service, which shows it must be going well. Would Cathay Pacific do the same?

“When we talk about pre-pandemic, it’s already five years ago. So our goal is not to look at what we had five years ago. Our goal is to look at what the market needs nowadays. So I think we will assess each destination by the latest market supply and demand, and then we’ll decide which routes are good to launch. If it makes economic sense, if there’s customer demand on a certain route, yeah, we’ll certainly go back. But we’re not necessarily just eyeing what we had in 2019.”

Lack of aircraft, which is plaguing many other airlines, does not seem to be the issue. Ronald explained that they have “flexibility” in their aircraft supply and are able to “extend the lease of certain aircraft so we won’t be constrained by that delay.”

The bottom line, it seems, is that more flights to London – whether Heathrow or Gatwick – do not appear to be on the cards any time soon, despite British Airways dropping its Hong Kong service to just one flight daily. Ronald seemed very firm on the subject!

Would Cathay Pacific block Starlux from joining oneworld?

Taiwanese airline Starlux has made no secret of its desire to join the oneworld alliance. As the youngest and smallest of the three Taiwanese full-service carriers it currently remains unaffiliated.

With China Airlines part of SkyTeam and EVA Air part of Star Alliance, there is really only one place for it to go: oneworld.

Last month, Taiwanese media reported that Starlux CEO Chai Chien-hua reiterated his desire to apply to join oneworld by the end of next year (2025).

Personally, I’d love to see Starlux join oneworld and launch flights to oneworld hubs in Europe, including London. Cathay Pacific might not see it that way, of course.

As a founding member of the oneworld alliance, Cathay Pacific has a right to veto any new airline. There’s a reason it might not be keen for Starlux to join: its geographic proximity means it might compete on more routes than Cathay may be comfortable with.

“I would let the oneworld management team evaluate it. The oneworld team will make the best recommendation for alliance.”

Would you take their recommendation on board?

“Yes.”

If true, we may see a new airline join oneworld in the coming years – joining Oman Air, Fiji Airways (upgrading from oneworld Connect membership) and Hawaiian Airlines (joining after its acquisition by Alaska) over the coming years.