Cathay Pacific has announced that it’s resuming a route that was “permanently” cut several years back. The timing here is quite interesting, if you ask me.
Cathay Pacific’s Hong Kong to Seattle route returns
As of March 30, 2026, Cathay Pacific plans to operate 5x weekly flights between Hong Kong (HKG) and Seattle (SEA), with the following schedule:
CX852 Hong Kong to Seattle departing 1:30PM arriving 10:10AM
CX853 Seattle to Hong Kong departing 11:50AM arriving 4:45PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate in both directions on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The 6,500-mile flight is blocked at 11h40min eastbound and 13hr55min westbound.
Cathay Pacific will use an Airbus A350-900 for the service, featuring 280 seats. This includes 38 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 214 economy class seats.
Seattle will be Cathay Pacific’s ninth gateway in North America, complementing service to Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Toronto (YYZ), and Vancouver (YVR). In the summer of 2026, Cathay Pacific will operate more than 110 weekly flights to North America.
What makes Cathay Pacific’s return to Seattle interesting
Cathay Pacific’s route to Seattle marks a service resumption rather than a new route. Cathay Pacific first launched this route in March 2019, and it only lasted for around a year, as it was suspended at the start of the pandemic. Then in late 2020, Cathay Pacific revealed that this was one of seven stations that was being cut “permanently,” due to lack of profitability. Other “permanent” cuts in the United States included Newark (EWR) and Washington (IAD). As you’d expect, nothing in the airline industry is actually permanent.
So, why are we now seeing Cathay Pacific resuming flights to Seattle? Well, I have to imagine the airline thinks the economics will work out better than in the past. The airline notes growing demand particularly for the Chinese Mainland and India.
In theory, there’s no reason that Seattle service shouldn’t succeed — it’s the closest US mainland gateway from Hong Kong, Seattle is a large market, and Cathay Pacific has a ton of connectivity in Seattle thanks to its oneworld partner, Alaska.
However, bigger picture, I can’t help but find the timing of this route launching to be quite interesting, and imagine it’s primarily motivated by competitive reasons. The way I see it, there are a couple of interesting competitive dynamics.
First, Delta recently announced it would launch Hong Kong flights, but it’s doing so out of Los Angeles, rather than Seattle. Hong Kong to Los Angeles is a market dominated by Cathay Pacific, and I imagine Delta would be too conservative to also launch Hong Kong flights out of Seattle. Still, I imagine Cathay Pacific adding this service to a Delta hub is a bit of a “nudge” to the carrier, to remind the folks in Atlanta who dominates Hong Kong. 😉
Second, Alaska is currently expanding long haul, turning Seattle into a global gateway. We know that Alaska plans to add 12 long haul routes from Seattle by 2030, and so far we’ve seen Asia service launched to Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Seoul Incheon (ICN). I have to imagine that Hong Kong (HKG) is among the next cities under consideration, so Cathay Pacific probably wants to beat Alaska to the punch.
Some people assume “oh, partner airlines don’t play those kinds of games,” but that’s not the case. Keep in mind the airlines don’t have anti-trust immunity, so there’s zero coordinating in terms of routes, schedules, etc. They’re competitors in the market, just like any other airlines would be.
Bottom line
As of March 2026, Cathay Pacific plans to resume flights to Seattle, with 5x weekly Airbus A350 flights. This is a route that was previously operated in 2019, before being “permanently” cut at the start of the pandemic.
I’m not surprised to see Cathay Pacific resuming this route, both since the market overall has changed a bit in recent years, plus the competitive dynamics have evolved considerably. This comes at a time where Delta is returning to Hong Kong (but out of Los Angeles), while Alaska is turning Seattle into a global gateway.
What do you make of Cathay Pacific returning to Seattle? And competitively, do you think this is more aimed at Alaska or Delta?
