Hong Kong Express as LCC?
 

I am gobsmacked that they employed a Gwai lo:eek:

Aren't they already low cost, or just low salary and lower conditions?

Budget airline Hong Kong Express to fly.....
 

Budget airline Hong Kong Express to fly to Malaysia, mainland China cities


Hong Kong Express Airways said yesterday it will fly to two mainland cities and Malaysia when it starts operating as a budget carrier in October.

Prices will be at least 30 per cent lower than those of rival Cathay Pacific Airways.

The airline, controlled by mainland-based HNA Group, has disposed of its Boeing 737s. It now has three Airbus 320s but will increase that number to five by September.

It will have a fleet of 30 planes in five years and plans to hire 150 staff by the end of the year.

"For too long Hong Kong has been denied the opportunity to travel at low cost to the mainland and the rest of Asia," deputy chief executive Andrew Cowen said.

Yang Jianhong, the executive chairman of Hong Kong Express, said the firm would lower costs per seat by 40 per cent by increasing the use of aircraft to 13 hours per day from nine and having no free catering or check-in baggage on board.

Yang added he expected the carrier to break even within two years.

The airline's transformation involves a management reshuffle. Steve Allen is the carrier's commercial director. Two other expatriates from low-cost carriers have also joined the airline.

The carrier will operate independently from sister company Hong Kong Airlines.

It will start flying to Sabah, Malaysia, and the mainland cities of Kunming and Chongqing.

Hong Kong is not a typical market for low-cost carriers as it does not have a budget terminal and labour costs are high.

Cowen said the absence of low-cost carriers from Hong Kong made the city an expensive place to fly to and from.

Ninety-four airlines fly to Hong Kong. Ten are budget carriers. The penetration rate of the budget carriers is 5 per cent of capacity.

SCMP. 2/7/13

I think he is confusing labour costs with cost of living and inflation.

The comedy continues.

HKE LCC will never be a successful operation because:

1. X-ops is in Charge.
2. CEO protects X-ops because X-ops is a weak and spineless puppet.
3. Management believes there is no problem at all with having the highest pilot turnover on the planet.
4. HKE has no self evaluation, review then improvement so the conditions and culture have and will always remained unchanged.
5. The Gweilo (Much used Asian racist term for white guy) managers hired to setup the LCC will be given no freedom from the short sighted Chinese management to make it a success.
6. The cabin crew will not do as they are asked on that basic wage because there is no overnight allowance and no glamorous travel in between cleaning the vomit, toilets and rubbish on the short turn around. Hiring Cabin crew will become difficult.
7. They are living in a delusion. "there is no morale problem" If they believe that they will do nothing to make conditions any better than they are.
8. Just like Boeing was always wrong, Airbus will no doubt be wrong, but never fear Xman will show you all how to fly it like planes he flew in PNG.
9. Tech crew worldwide are well aware of these clowns by now and will do what they have always done which is get hours then leave and only the worst most unemployable will apply.

That last point should not be a problem though as hiring and training pilots costs nothing according to xman and the CEO. :yuk:

HKE Low cost will never work with X.H and his team involved.

Maverick: Tower, this is Ghost rider requesting a flyby.
 

Is there any truth to the rumour that the GMF better known as XMAN, had a minor gear extension problem in the 737. He then refused to listen to the F/O suggestions of holding, doing an orbit to complete the checklist.

The GMF ignored all prompts displaying no CRM and pushed on to a rushed approach at high speed without doing the QRH and "requested a flyby of the tower" to ask if the tower controllers could confirm the gear down? All this before following SOP and QRH.

Fact or fiction?

Can any professional aviators tell us if his actions were worthy of a Chief Pilot and leader of an airline? :confused:

check down and locked
 

Flybys at night are very useful.