SQ PPS Club

Cathay Pacific considering flying to Israel

The largest airline in the Far East is reviewing the possibility of operating a flight to Israel, within its intention of establishing flights to Middle East.

The splendor of the Orient is making its way to Israel. The largest Far Eastern airline, Cathay Pacific, is examining the possibility of operating a flight from the Far East to Israel.

Augustus Tang, Cathay Pacific Airline’s Director of Corporate Planning, told Maariv that the move was being examined as part of company plans to establish flights from the Far East to the Middle East.

According to Tang, in light of the increasing travel between Israel and from several Middle Eastern nations to the Far East, the company would like to begin operating flights between the two areas. The fine points are being scrutinized. Tang believes that a decision, to be based on a review of the data and of feasibility, will be made within several months.

Cathay Pacific is known for showing strong profitability. The company consistently wins numerous prestigious international awards for its service year after year. Based in Hong Kong, the company has a fleet of 94 modern planes, and operates lines from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, New York and European capitals.

Source: http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?...articleID=7651

Guy Betsy

With or without the political situation in Israel, CX would most likely just codeshare instead of actually flying their own aircraft and crew into Israel.

It would be a logistical crew nightmare for CX to exclude all Malaysians and Indonesian staff from operating on those flights.

Makanmata

I have no information whatsoever about these plans, and whether it would be a code-share or CX flight. But I don't see why any "logistical" difficulties would be presented by a direct flight. Israel does not bar citizens of these countries from entry (nor do Malaysia or Indonesia bar Israelis). I suspect that demand for such a CX route exists as there are significant Israeli business interests in China and SAR, and SAR interests in Israel as well (I believe Hutchison Whompoa owns one of the Israeli cell phone concessions).

There has been recurring talk of an SQ flight to TLV, although it hasn't happened yet. I would imagine that the swooning technology industry caused them to shelve those plans for now.

gear down

no news within cx regarding flights to israel

zhaobao

At one point, Malaysian passports have a stamp inside that says not valid for travel to Israel.

eamus

Hmmmm. It seems that Israelis are not permitted to visit Malaysia and their passports are not recognized by Indonesia. I know this is a travel company website rather than an official one, but if it's true then a tit or tat approach by Israel might not be very surprising and I can't see Malaysia or Indonesia listed anywhere here, where you apply for a tourist visa to Israel if you need one.

SQ PPS Club

gear down,

Give Augustus Tang, Cathay Pacific's Director of Corporate Planning and ask him directly about CX plans to fly into Israel. I am sure he will shed some light into this story.

guy betsy,

I think CX would be sensitive with the religion issue and therefore will try and not roster staff originating from these sensitive regions of Asia. I thought you would have know this.

crazycrab955

For Malaysian passports, this is still the case. Inside the passport, the only country listed for which the passport is not valid for travel is Israel.

South Africa was also on this list inside the passport for some time but has been removed in the latest versions.

eamus

Some reading comprehension lessons might be in order. What GB said was "It would be a logistical crew nightmare for CX to exclude all Malaysians and Indonesian staff from operating on those flights." That comment clearly implies three things:

1. He knows that CX does or probably does have Indonesian and Malaysian crew members,
2. He knows Indonesions and Malaysians can't fly to Israel, and
3. Organizing the roster around that fact, which is not in play anywhere else that CX flies, would need to be done.

How a journalist could read a lack of sensitivity on the part of CX into GB's comment is beyond me. He says exactly the opposite, that CX would have to bend over backwards to accommodate the [pause to insert OMNI-worthy adjectives] policies of those particular governments.

daniellam

Maybe CX can get around this by having the Hong Kong Immigration Department issue their crew members who are Malaysian Citizens (and living in HKG) "Certificate of Identity" (basically a travel document for stateless people) for the purpose of entering Isreal?

Can any immigration experts confirm whether this can be done or not?

zhaobao

Doubt it, because those crew members can actually get a national passport. BTW, there is no more CI, just Document of Identity.
http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/hktraveldoc_6.htm

mhtaipei

By the way, "the largest airline in the Far East"... hello????? the article sounds highly dubious. it was probably a polite political statement by CX without any factual background.

Guy Betsy

Hmm. Stateless people usually stay in one place. It is very difficult obtaining visas for people who hold Documents of Identity to any country!

Your idea of getting HK Immigration Dept to issue CX their crew members CI's is ridiculous. Would any country issue Documents of Identity to anyone who simply wants one?

BearX220

It's all about how badly CX wants the route. If BA, AF, etc. can run entire fake airlines-within-airlines to serve TPE so as not to offend Beijing ("British Asia Airways," "Air France Asie," etc.), paint and schedule special dedicated aircraft, and cope with the logistical fallout because they want TPE on their schedules, CX can schedule crew selectively into TLV.

Guy Betsy

But honestly, is there a sufficiently large enough market to serve TLV as opposed to TPE? Not only does CX have to avoid flying certain nationalities to Israel, CX will have to probably reroute their flight paths so as to avoid flying over any Islamic countries while flying to and from Israel. It may seem ridiculous to some but El Al has got to do this all the time.

For example. when flying from TLV to BKK or HKG, it has to fly south along the Red Sea, and around the coast .. avoiding all air space of the Islamic countries. CX even though not an Israeli airline would have to abide such rulings especially if it was to codeshare with El Al.