Cathay Pacific regains permit to fly many China routes vacated by its closed subsidiary

Cathay Pacific has secured approval from mainland Chinese authorities to fly most of the routes previously covered by its now-defunct subsidiary, in a move seen as a confidence booster for Hong Kong’s struggling flag carrier. The carrier did not raise any objection to its nascent rival Greater Bay Airlines’ (GBA) bid to fly more than 100 routes from Hong Kong. The newcomer might be able to launch as soon as this summer given the lack of opposition, sources said. Mainland aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a notice dated January 29 that it would award Cathay Pacific the operating licence to fly passenger and cargo services to 15 mainland cities, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Nanjing. The other routes approved for Cathay were Fuzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Haikou and Sanya. But some routes previously operated by the flag carrier’s shuttered regional brand, Cathay Dragon – such as Jinan, Kunming, Changsha, Guilin and Nanning – did not appear on the latest list, implying they could be dropped from Cathay’s schedules.<br/>