Originally Posted by
Long Haul
I would expect that UAL will be able to sell tickets using (fifth?) freedom rights, we were able to at my last airline. No Chinese visa required for HKG, so most passengers can go there. It's probably in terms of cargo better to fly from HKG than NRT, also
United has rights out of HKG and NRT from its PanAm Pacific route and asset purchase in 1985. It was $750M back then which is about $2B in today's dollars. Probably the best investment United ever made aside from PanAm's London Heathrow and Europe operation in the late 80s.
Historically United had a permanent pilot TDY base and FA base in HKG for the round the world flights. The HKG FA base just closed during Covid. Maybe they will reopen it? Now they need to finish refurbishing the United Club there.