You may know that Cathay Pacific will be returning to 
Seattle in March 2026. It’ll be the first time the oneworld member has served the airport since the pandemic forced flights to stop in early 2020. With booking data showing 57,000 round-trip passengers a year, Seattle was Hong Kong’s largest unserved long-haul market globally. This article was written in the Pearl of the Orient while attending Routes World.
Cathay will focus on the local market, huge connectivity through Seattle with partner Alaska Airlines, and connections across Asia via Hong Kong, including the Chinese mainland, India, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 2020, Cathay said that Seattle would be permanently cut. Various things contributed to its return, such as Alaska Airlines turning Seattle into a global gateway, Seattle having 63% fewer China flights post-COVID and no Indian flights, and Delta Air Lines returning to Hong Kong next year (albeit from Los Angeles).
Cathay Plans 114 Weekly Departures To North America (For Now)
As of September 25, the return of Seattle to its network means the Hong Kong carrier plans 114 weekly passenger departures to the US and Canada next summer. As that period is so far away, things will certainly change, so treat this section as a snapshot of the current plan.
In 2025, Cathay launched Dallas flights, which is the airline’s longest route. While the Texas link will have more services during the upcoming winter, only four departures are scheduled for next summer. When added to the return of Seattle and 
Boston growing from six weekly flights to daily, Cathay’s schedule submission to Cirium Diio shows they will still be down from 141 weekly services before the pandemic in summer 2019. The loss of routes to Newark and Washington Dulles contributed.
More surprisingly, its 114 weekly takeoffs will still be down by one compared to summer 2025. This is because its two Canadian links will both have fewer services. 
Toronto and Vancouver are both scheduled for two daily services, down from 18 and 17 weekly, respectively. As next summer is far away and airlines are still fine-tuning their plans, this could easily change. Do not read too much into it.
|
Cathay’s Departures In June 2026* |
Hong Kong To…** |
|---|---|
|
Three daily |
Los Angeles |
|
Three daily |
San Francisco |
|
Three daily |
New York JFK |
|
Two daily |
Toronto |
|
Two daily |
Vancouver |
|
Daily |
Boston |
|
Daily |
Chicago O’Hare |
|
Five weekly |
Seattle |
|
Four weekly |
Dallas/Fort Worth |
|
* Initial look only as of September 25 |
** Equipment is not stated, as all these routes are down to see the A350-900, which is just a placeholder. The reality will be different |
Where Cathay’s North American Passengers Go
According to booking data for August 2024 to July 2025, approximately 1.9 million of Cathay’s North American passengers—over 5,000 daily—connected to another flight at its 
Hong Kong hub. This only includes those who flew, say, Dallas-Hong Kong-Manila. It does not include those who transferred to another service in North America and Hong Kong, such as Atlanta-Dallas-Hong Kong-Manila.
The ten most popular country markets were US-China, Canada-China, US-Philippines, US-Thailand, US-Vietnam, Canada-Philippines, Canada-India, US-India, Canada-Vietnam, and US-Taiwan. Booking data shows the top three countries were China, the Philippines, and Thailand.
At the city level, the most popular origins and destinations were New York-Fuzhou, Toronto-Manila, Vancouver-Delhi, New York-Manila, New York-Shanghai, Los Angeles-Bangkok, New York-Guangzhou, Los Angeles-Manila, Toronto-Shanghai, and Vancouver-Manila.
These Are Now Hong Kong’s 10 Largest Unserved Long-Haul Markets
With 57,000 round-trip local passengers, Seattle was Hong Kong’s largest unserved market. Now that it is returning, Mexico City has taken the top spot (43,000), followed by Honolulu (42,000). Neither place is likely to be served. Next are Lisbon and Houston (both with 38,000), followed by Calgary (37,000), Las Vegas and Vienna (36,000 each), London Gatwick (35,000; it saw Cathay pre-COVID), Geneva (34,000), and Montreal (32,000).
Geneva not only has reasonably good local traffic but also a very high fare. When combined with having one of the shortest stage lengths of this selection, it is perhaps the best contender. And when connectivity via Hong Kong is considered, a three or four weekly A350-900 operation could be interesting.
