Cathay Pacific has confirmed that its Hong Kong–Manchester service will be up-gauged from the Airbus A350-900 to the Boeing 777-300ER for most of the upcoming northern-summer 2026 season. According to the carrier’s 26 January filing on schedule analytics site AeroRoutes, the higher-capacity 777-300ER (368 seats) will operate daily between 30 March and 31 May, and again from 2 October to 24 October, with a mixed 368/294-seat rotation during September.
The aircraft change adds roughly 1,200 weekly seats on the trans-Eurasian corridor at a time when Hong Kong’s corporate travel market to the UK is rebounding strongly. Financial-services, legal and higher-education sectors—many clustered in northern England—have lobbied for more capacity as universities reopen fully for in-person teaching and post-pandemic project work accelerates. The 777-300ER also offers a larger premium-economy cabin and the airline’s award-winning First Class on selected rotations, aligning with corporates’ demand for rest-of-journey productivity and duty-of-care considerations.
Operationally, the move improves cargo lift by almost 20 tonnes per flight, supporting time-critical shipments such as pharmaceuticals and high-tech components between the Greater Bay Area and the UK’s advanced-manufacturing hub in Manchester. Freight forwarders expect the extra belly space to ease rate volatility ahead of the summer peak.
![Cathay Pacific switches Manchester route to larger Boeing 777-300ER for summer 2026]()
Before employees take advantage of the extra seats, travel teams may also want to pre-empt any documentation hurdles: VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal offers a one-stop platform for UK visa processing, renewal and multi-country itineraries, with live status alerts and expert support—details at https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/
For mobility managers, the schedule tweak underscores the importance of monitoring equipment swaps that can alter cabin configurations, loyalty-programme upgrade inventory and carbon-emissions reporting. Travellers holding A350-booked tickets will be auto-reaccommodated; however, seat maps have changed, so companies should prompt employees to re-select preferred seats and verify any special-meal requests. The carrier has advised passengers to check the ‘Manage Booking’ portal for updates.
The Manchester upgrade forms part of Cathay’s wider capacity ramp-up, which saw the airline exceed 36 million passengers in 2025. Further announcements on North American and Middle-East routes are expected before the IATA summer season commences on 30 March.
The aircraft change adds roughly 1,200 weekly seats on the trans-Eurasian corridor at a time when Hong Kong’s corporate travel market to the UK is rebounding strongly. Financial-services, legal and higher-education sectors—many clustered in northern England—have lobbied for more capacity as universities reopen fully for in-person teaching and post-pandemic project work accelerates. The 777-300ER also offers a larger premium-economy cabin and the airline’s award-winning First Class on selected rotations, aligning with corporates’ demand for rest-of-journey productivity and duty-of-care considerations.
Operationally, the move improves cargo lift by almost 20 tonnes per flight, supporting time-critical shipments such as pharmaceuticals and high-tech components between the Greater Bay Area and the UK’s advanced-manufacturing hub in Manchester. Freight forwarders expect the extra belly space to ease rate volatility ahead of the summer peak.
Before employees take advantage of the extra seats, travel teams may also want to pre-empt any documentation hurdles: VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal offers a one-stop platform for UK visa processing, renewal and multi-country itineraries, with live status alerts and expert support—details at https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/
For mobility managers, the schedule tweak underscores the importance of monitoring equipment swaps that can alter cabin configurations, loyalty-programme upgrade inventory and carbon-emissions reporting. Travellers holding A350-booked tickets will be auto-reaccommodated; however, seat maps have changed, so companies should prompt employees to re-select preferred seats and verify any special-meal requests. The carrier has advised passengers to check the ‘Manage Booking’ portal for updates.
The Manchester upgrade forms part of Cathay’s wider capacity ramp-up, which saw the airline exceed 36 million passengers in 2025. Further announcements on North American and Middle-East routes are expected before the IATA summer season commences on 30 March.
