LONDON – On December 9, it was announced that the Hong Kong based cargo operator, Hong Kong Air Cargo, has launched new freighter charter services to Sydney in Australia.
Charters to Sydney
For the first time, Hong Kong Air Cargo has opened up its newest destination across its network, welcoming the Australian city of Sydney with the inauguration of new charter services from Hong Kong, the carriers home base.
The first charter flew on December 8, operated by one of Hong Kong Air Cargo’s Airbus A330 Freighters. Specifically the flight, RH701 (HKC701) left Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) at 23:30 pm and arrived into Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) at 11:44 am the following morning on December 9 after an eight hour flight.
The return charter service, flight RH702 (HKC702), will depart Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) at 13:32 pm and arrive back into Hong Kong Airport (HKG) at 19:42 pm after a nine hour return flight.
The new Sydney charter services will be operated on a three times per week basis using the carrier’s sole Airbus A330 Freighter fleet.
The inaugural service was operated by B-LNV, a 10-year-old Airbus A330-200 Freighter. This aircraft is one of five Airbus A330-200 Freighters that Hong Kong Air Cargo operates, with the other four registered as B-LNW, B-LNX, B-LNY and B-LNZ, all of which are between 10 and 13 years old at the time of writing.
Sydney becomes Hong Kong Air Cargo’s 20th overall cargo destination, and their first cargo destination within Australia.
Sydney was one of nine destinations that the carrier had received operational approval for back in 2021. The other approved destination were Delhi and Chennai in India, Tokyo in Japan, Manila in the Philippines, Jakarta in Indonesia, Melbourne in Australia, Liege in Belgium and Milan in Italy.
Hong Kong Air Cargo is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Airlines, that are both ultimately owned by the Chinese Hainan Airlines Group. Hainan Airlines Group has a total of 17 different airlines under its ownership.
Senior Comments
Commenting on their newest charter destination, Hong Kong Air Cargo’s Director of Government and Public Affairs, William Chan, said: “We will continue to expand our route network and improve our service to serve our customers.”
“As the global market recovers from the pandemic, it is important for us to focus on what we do well and respond to our customer’s needs whilst ensuring that we strengthen Hong Kong’s position as the international cargo hub.”
Overall
It certainly is great to see Hong Kong Air Cargo slowly expanding its services, with Sydney being the first in quite some time for the operator due to the strict Covid restrictions that Hong Kong operators had been pinned under since the start of the pandemic back in early 2020.
Hopefully as they regain their strength, we’ll start to see the air cargo carrier opening up new services to those other remaining eight destinations that they also have received approval for to operate to.
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