Greater Bay Airlines will cancel 128 flights in February and March 2025 due to delays in new aircraft delivery and the need for regular inspection of some existing aircraft. It will also suspend its Hong Kong-Seoul service due to “unsatisfactory business performance”.
The decision has caused grave concern to the government, according to local news reports, and attracted the attention of Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, which has urged the airline to expedite refunds to customers affected by the large-scale flight cancellations.
However, travel trade players in Hong Kong told TTG Asia that they and their customers are not impacted.
Bao Shinn International Express, managing director, Johnny So, said: “Greater Bay Airlines seldom works with travel agents; it sells directly to consumers. We are not affected.”
With regards to the suspended Kong-Seoul service, So said the airline had done the same on other routes like Singapore, China’s Haikou and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.
He is unperturbed, saying that these routes “only generated outbound traffic (from Hong Kong) without bringing inbound tourist traffic from those (markets)”.
Travel Industry Council, executive director, Fanny Yeung, shared that trade feedback has indicated about 20 impacted tour groups with some 300 travellers.
Yeung opined that impact on groups was minimal, as the airline catered more to FITs.
“Fortunately, the cancellation will not affect services during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays,” she commented.
In a press statement issued on 22 January, Greater Bay Airlines admitted “an internal review in this matter has been carried out immediately and negligence was found in our flight scheduling process”.
