Dragonair announces August 2003 schedule

Dragonair has announced that it will operate services to all the China mainland destinations in its network in August, the first time it has done so since April. The August schedule will also see increased frequencies to 15 destinations.

The revisions to the schedule mean that all of the airline's passenger fleet will be in operation during the month.

"With the containment of SARS and a range of special offers we have seen a rapid improvement in the market in the last few weeks," said Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hui. "There has been strong demand among independent travellers and this is being followed by a pick-up in group travel."

He continued: "Yields, however, are, as expected, lower than in the period before the SARS outbreak, and they will definitely take some time to recover."

Among the destinations seeing increased frequencies are Beijing, with 42 services a week up from 28, Shanghai, 60 flights a week up from 53, and Taipei, which will have 22 flights a week up from 21. 

As a result of the increases, Dragonair will be operating 82% of its original summer schedule, with only 54 flights cancelled. This is up from 69% in July and 90 flight cancellations.

Flights to Hiroshima and Sendai in Japan are the only services that remain suspended.

The airline said it's cargo schedule will continue to operate normally.