HK Express passenger numbers surge 174% YoY in November

The airline's still number one in OTP.

HK Express, Hong Kong’s one-and-only dedicated low-fare airline, has released figures detailing the airline’s exceptional year-on-year growth performance, and among the key highlights was a 174% improvement in passenger numbers for the month of November, when compared with the same period last year.

According to a release from HK Express, alongside the significant increase in the number of flights, the airline still maintained the number one position among all Hong Kong-based airlines in terms of On-Time Performance. For November 2014, HK Express recorded an OTP of 85.10%.

The statistical comparison over the last 13 months is significant because on 27 October, 2013, HK Express transformed into a Low Cost Carrier (LCC), with a new vision for providing efficient and low-fares travel throughout Asia from their home base in Hong Kong.

The dramatic leap in passenger numbers reflects a number of aspects of the airline’s new focus; but most importantly, it attests to the success of a strategy to offer consistently affordable fares that make air travel accessible to more people.

Here's more from HK Express:

HK Express’ core markets in North Asia continues to deliver stronger passenger growth, with continued positive increases in load factor, validating the airline’s development strategy of expanding its network and service frequencies, especially to Japan.

The popularity of Japanese destinations coupled with Yen depreciation also significantly contributed to the surge in passenger numbers in the month of November.

The airline is committed to expanding its destination footprint to all regions of Japan, including routes to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Nagoya.

In addition to the second daily flight to Tokyo-Haneda that commenced on 16 November, the airline has also launched its Tokyo-Narita route, which started on 8 December. The additional flights mean that HK Express now flies 49 flights to Japan per week.

HK Express also announced that in response to the very strong demand for low-fare flights to North Asia, from February 2015, four additional flights per week between Hong Kong and Incheon will be added, for a total of 18 flights per week, and Tokyo-Narita flights will increase from seven flights per week to 12.