HK Express has announced that it will suspend all flight operations as of 23 March until 30 April 2020, in light of the significant drop in travel demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and governmental travel restrictions.
The airline is looking into resuming flight operations on 1 May 2020 and closely monitoring the development of the situation. Ticket sales remain available for May 2020 and beyond.
As of today, HK Express has already cancelled about 2,000 flight sectors, covering 23 out of our 25 routes across Asia.
HK Express CEO Mandy Ng said: “This is a decision we have not taken lightly. Unfortunately, it is now essential in order to ensure we see ourselves through this extremely difficult period. Given all the challenges we have been facing, preserving our cash position is key to make sure we stay together as team.”
Ng added, “We would like to thank our customers who continue to support us throughout this period. I am especially grateful for our team’s selfless contributions to HK Express, with more than 96% of us participating in the Special No Pay Leave Scheme. I have no doubt that we will pull through this together, emerging stronger and better.”
Customers whose travel plans have been affected by the suspension of all flight operations will have the option of changing their travel date, travel route or receive a full refund. Additional information for affected passengers is available on the HK Express’ website.
Furthermore, HK Express is bringing forward leave plans for crew by reallocating leave originally assigned in the second half of the year to the period between April and June 2020. This is being done so as to reserve manpower for when demand returns.