Virgin Australia has announced its withdrawal of services between Australia and Hong Kong. This comes with the announcement that they have decided to suspend the Sydney-Hong Kong service from 2 March 2020.
This follows the previous announcement that the Melbourne-Hong Kong services would be withdrawn from 11 February 2020. Virgin went one step further and confirmed that this service would not be returning.
As a result, Virgin Australia will no longer operate services to Hong Kong.
It is not surprising that it has come to this. Despite heavily discounted fares, Virgin appears to have struggled to fill planes on the Hong Kong routes. There has been the ongoing civil unrest in Hong Kong. More recently, the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a substantial drop in passengers.
Virgin Australia Group Chief Commercial Officer, John MacLeod said: “Hong Kong has continued to be a challenging market. With a decline in demand following ongoing civil unrest, and growing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak in the wider region, we have made the decision to withdraw services.
“While the decision to withdraw from the Hong Kong market has been a difficult one, it demonstrates our strong focus on driving greater financial discipline through our network.
“Current circumstances demonstrate that Hong Kong is no longer a commercially viable route for Virgin Australia to continue operating, however international tourism remains an important part of our strategy through our other international routes and partner airlines,” Mr MacLeod said.
