Cathay Pacific Airways plans a full-court promotional blitz to get its brand and logo in front of New England travelers before its May 3 launch of nonstop flights between Boston and Hong Kong.
"The whole Cathay distribution machine will be out there telling people," corporate development director James Barrington said yesterday at a breakfast co-hosted by the Langham Boston and Hong Kong Association of Massachusetts. "It's been too long coming, because as we look at this market, it's going to be a pretty good one."
Boston is the largest U.S. market currently without direct Hong Kong service, and the new flights will open up business opportunities, leisure traffic — from tourists, students and their parents — and the flow of goods for New England, Barrington said.
"North America is where the future lies for our cargo business, and in particular capturing the huge two-way flows of goods between China and the U.S.," Barrington said. "While these trade lanes have been built largely on the outflow of goods from the key manufacturing regions in mainland China, now we are seeing more high-end consumer goods moving in the other direction as China's middle class grows in both numbers and spending power."
Larger and larger numbers of Asian investors are coming into Boston because of its high-tech sector and real estate, according to Johnny Ip, managing director of TW Capital Group LLC and president of the Hong Kong Association of Massachusetts. The group has been organizing trade missions from Hong Kong and China every quarter in the last few years to match businesses with U.S. corporations.
Cathay Pacific has seen 423 percent growth on its U.S. routes in terms of passengers carried to and from mainland China in the last eight years.
"Travel and tourism in the mainland are already substantial, and the projections for the future are staggering as urbanization continues and spending power continues to rise," Barrington said.
Chinese visitors are the biggest overseas spenders, plunking down $6,100 per person when they visit the United States, said Evan Saunders, CEO of Attract China, which helps hospitality businesses connect with independent Chinese travelers.
"It's a fantastically large deal," Saunders said of the Boston-Hong Kong flights. "It connects Boston and all of New England with a huge part of Asia, including much of southern China — cities below Beijing."
The Hong Kong airline's flights will leave both destinations four times a week.
"If it starts successfully and it works for us, we have the aircraft to move to daily (flights) in three to four months," Barrington said.
The direct Boston flights will shave about 4.5 hours off flights to Hong Kong that now stop in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Round-trip tickets for the inaugural 15.5-hour flight from Boston, returning May 30, yesterday started at $1,170 for economy, $2,185 for premium economy, $7,560 for business class and $18,850 for first class on Expedia.
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