In July, RichardBranson, founder of Virgin Australia, attended the maiden voyage ceremony from Melbourne to Hong Kong. (Sydney Morning Herald photo)
The Sydney Morning Herald and the South China Morning Post reported that Virgin Australia, Australia's second largest airline, will permanently cancel all flights between Hong Kong and Australia next month. The crisis in novel coronavirus became the last straw that overwhelmed Virgin Australia, and the company decided to give up its three-year efforts and enter this Asian aviation hub.
Virgin Australia confirmed today that it will stop flights from Sydney to Hong Kong from March 2. The airline had previously "conducted a comprehensive review of this route" and concluded that this route is no longer commercially feasible.
Virgin Atlantic announced last year 1 1 that it would cut flights from Melbourne to Hong Kong. The last flight today is confirmed to take off in February 1 1.
Since then, the airline has been flying to Hong Kong, trying to break into this high-demand aviation market dominated by Cathay Pacific and Qantas.
However, according to the data of the Australian Department of Infrastructure, the vacancy rate of Virgin Australia's Hong Kong flights reached 36% in June 165438+ 10 last year. In contrast, Qantas and Cathay Pacific are only 20%.
VirginAtlantic said today that the demand for this "challenging" route was severely hit by the demonstrations in Hong Kong for several months and the uncertainty surrounding the new coronary artery epidemic led the company to decide to cancel this route.
JohnMacLeod, Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin, said that it was a difficult choice to withdraw from the Hong Kong market, but with the help of other Virgin airlines and partner airlines, international tourism remained an important part of the company's strategy.
Virgin Atlantic said that it will contact customers who have booked flights to Hong Kong on or after March 2 to make other travel arrangements for them.