For you who love travelling to Asia for orienteering—there’s a new low-cost carrier (LCC) waiting to take off from Hong Kong, if you fancy trying something new.
South China Morning Post reports that a new low-cost carrier, Greater Bay Airlines, is pending approval by the Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong. The key man, Bill Wong, also owns Donghai Airlines in Shenzhen.
Hong Kong is situated right at the middle of three major markets: China, Northeast Asia (Japan, Korea) and Southeast Asia. (All of which has seen a surge of orienteering activities over the past decade, too.) The other LCC from Hong Kong, Hong Kong Express, was acquired by the full-service flag carrier Cathay Pacific in 2019.
The name “Greater Bay” comes from China’s regional plans for the Pearl River Delta region, a megalopolis spanning Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macau and many more cities totaling over 63 million residents.
Asia is home to a number of low-cost carriers, such as Scoot and Lion Air, but most notably the Malaysian-based AirAsia which is one of the few LCCs in the world to fly long haul.
If everything goes well, you might be able to try this new airline on your next orienteering trip in Asia, despite disruptions to the orienteering calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic.