Hong Kong Airlines swaps Qantas for Virgin Atlantic as Australian partner

Hong Kong Airlines in Jan-2012 signed a deal with Qantas allowing Hong Kong Airlines to sell its new all-premium A330 Hong Kong-London flights to Australia with Qantas covering the Hong Kong-Australia sector. Hong Kong Airlines is pitching its all-premium service, which offers business class and premium economy seats, as offering a high quality product at a lower fare level. Not too long after the Hong Kong Airlines-Qantas deal was completed more senior managers at the Australian carrier became fully aware of the contract and realised giving traffic to a competitor was not in its best interest.

Hong Kong Airlines has now done a deal with Virgin Atlantic, which operates between Hong Kong and Sydney. Australia-London tickets offer Hong Kong Airlines segments in either premium economy or business between Hong Kong and London with a Virgin Atlantic economy sector between Hong Kong and Sydney. While the Qantas deal included business class, Virgin Atlantic is not offering its business class or premium economy product, and Virgin Atlantic's flights are only available from Sydney whereas the Qantas agreement also brought Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth destinations online.