PDA

View Full Version : Cathay Pacific planning to fly to Israel


clear.right
8th May 2015, 04:03
Cathay Pacific planning to fly to Israel - Israel Travel, Ynetnews (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4653983,00.html)

Cathay Pacific planning to fly to Israel
Hong Kong's flag carrier, which has won World's Best Airline award four times, looking into launching new route in mid 2016.
Danny Sadeh
Published: 05.05.15, 22:58 / Israel Travel


Cathay Pacific Airways, which won the World's Best Airline Award for the fourth time in 2014, is looking into launching a new route from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv.

Company representatives visited Israel about a week ago and met with local aviation officials to examine the procedures which will allow the airline to start flying to the Holy Land. The delegation's visit included meetings with members of the Israel Airports Authority and Civil Aviation Authority and security officials at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that Cathay Pacific plans to start operating the flights towards the middle of next year on its new Airbus A350 planes. The company has purchased 20 Airbus A350-1000 and Airbus A350-900 which will be activated in the coming months.

Cathay Pacific is Hong Kong's flagship carrier, operating passenger flights and cargo flights. The company offers services to 168 destinations in 42 countries worldwide on direct flights and codeshare agreements with other airlines. The company has a fleet of Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft, as well as Airbus A330 and A340, in addition to a fleet of smaller planes to short-haul destinations in Asia.

Cathay Pacific's clear advantage for Israeli passengers is network of connecting flights to the Far East and Australia

Cathay Pacific was founded in 1946 by Australian and American entrepreneurs and is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance, which also includes American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and other companies. In 2014, it was named 2014 Airline of the Year by Skytrax, a UK-based consultancy which ranks the world's best airlines and airports every year.

The company has won the World's Best Airline award four times, more than any other airline in the world, thanks to its excellent service in all travel classes – first, business, premium economy and economy, thanks to the food and beverages it serves (caviar and champagne in first class and a variety of gourmet meals in business class), and thanks for the groundcrew and aircrew service, in addition to its improved inflight entertainment system which offers hundreds of films, television programs, music programs and games.

El Al Israel Airlines is currently the only company offering flights from Tel Aviv to Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific's clear advantage, if it does fly to Israel, will be its network of connecting flights to the Far East and Australia.

Cathay Pacific is represented in Israel by the Tal Aviation company.

Trafalgar
8th May 2015, 06:40
Finally, somewhere in the Middle East that I actually will be happy to visit. Nice to see CX stepping up and supporting business and tourism to the only part of the Middle East that is inhabited by sane people (with an honourable mention to the UAE). :D

Just Do It
8th May 2015, 07:13
Can't wait to read the "Confidential Notice to Crew" on this one!

Does this mean I get to fly an aircraft with Chaff and Flares LOL!!!

Trafalgar
8th May 2015, 07:17
As I suspected, CR couldn't help but chime in with a dig at yet another group who offend him. Christians, Jews.....kill them all and let 'god' sort them out eh CR ? And you are correct, with you there is no hope of a rational discussion. :confused:

Captain Dart
8th May 2015, 08:00
What countries can we safely overfly from the east on the way in? Are there not special security procedures required on approaching Israeli airspace? Does this make CX a global target for the tea-towel and fan-belt brigade? Is the CX Security Department up to this? So many questions...

Has the makings of a great layover though. As an atheist, I like the Jews, most have a sense of humour.

Max Reheat
8th May 2015, 08:05
And don't forget, we stopped flying over Syria and Iraq when ISIS became a problem. Whose airspace do we utilise now...?

Ahhh.... Iran!

I can see the Ayatollahs being happy about our Israel links.

SloppyJoe
8th May 2015, 08:07
can we fly into Israel and also into the other middle east destinations? I though they did not allow you in if you have been to Israel. If our aircraft go to Israel can they also go to the other middle east destinations? Have heard many arabic countries will not allow aircraft to enter that have spent any time in Israel.

Mill Worker
8th May 2015, 08:49
Wrong, most ME FIR's will not accept you if your filed destination is in that part of the world that they do not like.

SloppyJoe
8th May 2015, 10:25
shuttle flight from Dubai or Qatar etc.

Do we really have pilots in this company who think we would put on a shuttle from Dubai or Qatar to Tel Aviv. Really??!!

AQIS Boigu
8th May 2015, 11:04
Good to see some "well researched" comments here as usual. A bit of a lesson in international relations for some of our pilots who didn't pay attention in their geography classes.

- HKG-TLV will be flown via the "Stan" route and Turkey (that's how El Al does it)
- Passports won't be stamped on arrival (you get a landing card).
- Many carriers fly from their home ports to TLV as well as other ME destinations.
- Shuttle from any of CX's ME ports won't happen since only Egypt, Jordan and Turkey have peace agreements with Israel.

crwkunt roll
10th May 2015, 02:32
The "Stan" route.....?
Did you just say the "F" word?

anotherbusdriver
10th May 2015, 17:18
Based on all the new ports published in the Port Pages manuals, we will be starting to operate into so many new and interesting destinations shortly. With 48 new aircraft arriving over the next few years, lots of second city airports as well.

Very cool, but who is going to fly all the new routes?

Oh, that's right, RP's gone now, so forget about any negotiations on that, we will just be doing it all 3 crew!

Shall we think about voting NO on the pay rise deal now maybe?

BillytheKid
10th May 2015, 18:29
Port pages exist to Shemya. Are we also going to operate there?

anotherbusdriver
11th May 2015, 05:26
I guess it doesn't really matter where exactly we fly our new A350's, but they have been bought specifically to open up new "long thin routes", always the CX Airbus philosophy.

In any case, flying them 3 crew will be the company's plan... We all can agree on that, I think.

What we need to look at is how we can ensure fair compensation for the extra workload, and the massive change in our basic COS because of this.
Fair credit factors for 3 crew long haul, and a much higher credit factor on 2 crew through the night ops. These flights are the killers, and I think that is also fairly obvious to the company, when you look at the recent jumping of ships at every opportunity from Airbus to 777 like rats deserting a burning wreck....

Call for CC on RP's and have the CC running concurrently until this whole big mess up is resolved.

anotherbusdriver
11th May 2015, 06:50
Absolutely Curtain. My thoughts exactly.

Let's not be distracted by a few crumbs thrown in our path.... We put our heads down like unsuspecting turkeys to gobble up the crumbs, then "woompah!!" Down comes the axe....

We are finally aware of the game's rules, finally playing to win..... Let's keep playing like champions, keep our team tight, and our goals in sight. Contract Compliance on RP's run concurrently with Contract Compliance for pay. Both need real solutions.