Virgin Australia drops Hong Kong services as protests, coronavirus bite

Virgin Australia will permanently withdraw all services from Hong Kong next month, with the coronavirus crisis proving to be the final straw for the airline as it decided to end its three-year attempt to crack into the Asian aviation hub. The airline said Thursday that its daily return Sydney-Hong Kong services would cease from March 2 following a "comprehensive review of the route" which concluded it was no longer financially viable.<br/>Virgin announced in November last year it would axe its Melbourne-Hong Kong service, effective from February 11. Australia's number two airline started flying to Hong Kong in June 2017, trying to break into a high-demand route dominated by Cathay Pacific and Qantas. Some 36% of the seats on Virgin’s Hong Kong flights were empty in November, according to Department of Infrastructure data, compared to only 20% for Qantas and Cathay Pacific. Virgin on Thursday said demand on the "challenging" route had been battered by months-long anti-government protests in the financial hub which, along with uncertainty around the coronavirus outbreak, led to the decision to drop the route.<br/>