Greater Bay Airlines Makes Maiden Flight, Eyeing Up to Fly 104 Routes by 2026

Greater Bay Airlines made its maiden flight yesterday afternoon (September 7, 2021), touching down at Hong Kong’s International Airport, as the start-up airline seeks for approval to fly to 104 destinations across Asia.

Supported by tycoon Bill Wong, the airline company aims to capitalize on HKIA’s completion of a third runway in 2024 and mainland China’s resumption of domestic flights by launching Asia-wide flights in late 2021. The airline was established in 2020 as a response to China’s national economic plan for the Greater Bay Area and integration of Hong Kong into mainland development.

The company first applied for rights to fly 104 routes across the Greater Bay Area, north Asia and southeast Asia in January 2021, with almost half the routes to fly to mainland China’s first-tier and second-tier cities. Additional routes will fly to multiple destinations in Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand.

Greater Bay Airlines is being self-funded by Bill Wong Cho-bau, a Hong Kong tycoon who already operates Donghai Airlines in Shenzhen and acts as non-executive director of Sino Land Company. HK$2 billion will be invested into jump starting the airline project, with HK$258 million already spent procuring traffic rights and regulatory permits to fly passengers and cargo.

Listed on their website, the airline hopes to operate scheduled commercial flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, and Beijing from the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval by HKIA and the overall pandemic situation of southeast Asia. Operations will begin with three Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft.

The airlines first passenger will take off on National Day, October 1, 2021, to Beijing’s Capital International Airport, marking the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

GBA plans to have 10 Boeing aircraft in service by 2022 and more than 30 by 2026. Each Boeing 737-800 aircraft can hold a maximum capacity of 189 seats.

In conversations with reporters in late 2020, Wong has stressed that Greater Bay Airlines is a “Hong Kong-based airline”, despite the mogul living and working in Shenzhen.