Two international air carriers are set to expand their capacity on the London Heathrow to Hong Kong route.

Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic will be making significant increases in the number of available seats on this lucrative route, to counteract the loss of seats caused by the failure of budget carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines.

After Oasis Hong Kong failed in April, the number of flights operating between London and Hong Kong dropped from 80 to 70. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has said that this decrease in service has negatively impacted tourism.

Seeking to increase the seats available to Hong Kong, Virgin will be adding a second daily flight on a three times weekly basis beginning 28 October, and then expanding the second daily flight to daily service from 4 December.

Along with Virgin’s increase in capacity, Cathay Pacific has indicated that it will replace the two Airbus A340-300s currently used on the route, bringing in Boeing 747s to increase the number of seats available. The aircraft change will add 1,288 seats weekly.

Hong Kong Tourism Board spokesman Simon Mills commented to TTG on the two airlines expanding capacity: "The increased capacity from Virgin and Cathay will sustain us. We are also expecting a bump in figures after the Olympics."

The number of visitors to Hong Kong for the first half of 2008 shows a rise of only 3.6 per cent over the first six months of 2007. For the first quarter of this year, when Oasis was still operating, as compared to the first quarter of 2007, there was a 12.3 per cent rise.