Cathay Bringing the A350-1000 to Toronto

Cathay Pacific is marking a quarter of a century of offering same-plane service between Toronto and the carrier’s home base of Hong Kong by introducing the A350-1000 to the route.

Cathay will begin using the plane to link Ontario’s capital with Hong Kong on Oct. 27. The A350-1000 can carry 334 passengers in Business, Premium Economy and Economy cabins, 54 more passengers than the A350-900s in its fleet can accommodate.

The airline now has 10 weekly non-stop Toronto-Hong Kong flights. It also links Vancouver and Hong Kong.

“We are delighted to be bringing this plane to Canada…,” Philippe Lacamp, Cathay’s senior vice-president, America’s told a Tuesday Toronto gathering.

“We understand we need to earn the loyalty of our customers and that’s what our team does day in and day out.”

Lacamp said his airline and travel agents and tour operators have been supporting “each other through thick and thin.” Hong Kong has recently been seeing demonstrations by people angry at the government in Beijing.

Meanwhile, Harold Ho of Royal Scenic praised Cathay Pacific, saying it “always has of the best cabin services among worldwide airlines.”

Royal Scenic is continuing to send people to Hong Kong and Ho said he would have no qualms about visiting himself at this time.

Those visiting Hong Kong these days only need to monitor the situation to avoid any demonstrations, he said.

Cathay Pacific also got the thumbs up from Diane Molzan of Goway, who lauded its “excellent service.” Molzan said Cathay has shown “consistency over the years” and “consistency is not always an easy thing to achieve.”

The A350-1000 has new Economy Class seating with a larger, higher definition personal television; LED mood lighting; enhanced WiFi; cabins that are 50% quieter in perceived levels of noise; and a “higher cabin pressure that supplies more oxygen to lower the effective cabin cruising altitude to 6,000 feet, which reduces passenger fatigue.”

Its new inflight entertainment system has live coverage of sporting events that will include the Tokyo Olympics.

Cathay notes that it and its sister airline Cathay Dragon can deliver people to points throughout Asia and Australia.

Pictured are Michael Lim of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Lacamp.