HK Express

HK Express (Hong Kong Express Airways, IATA code UO) is Hong Kong's low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. It flies only from Hong Kong International Airport, where its head office sits in Cathay House, and serves short- and medium-haul destinations across East and South-East Asia, including mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The airline did not start out as a budget carrier. Hong Kong Express Airways was incorporated on 10 March 2004, backed by the Macau entrepreneur Stanley Ho and launched through the helicopter operator Heli Hong Kong. It flew leased 76-seat Embraer E170 regional jets, beginning with charters to Taichung in September 2005 and scheduled flights to Guangzhou from 8 September 2005, followed by Hangzhou, Ningbo and other mainland cities. In August 2006 HNA Group, the parent of Hainan Airlines, agreed to take a 45 percent stake, and in 2008 the airline announced plans to add Boeing 737-800s as it won rights to fly to Beijing and Shanghai.

Becoming a low-cost carrier

On 26 June 2013 the company announced it would turn itself into a low-cost carrier under the shorter name HK Express. The first low-cost flights ran on 27 October 2013 to five Asian destinations, and the airline moved to an all-Airbus A320-family fleet. Routes to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Seoul, Busan and Penang followed. Growth was interrupted in November 2017, when Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department barred the airline from adding flights, routes or aircraft until 30 April 2018 after it cancelled 18 Golden Week flights at short notice.

Cathay Pacific agreed to buy HK Express on 27 March 2019 and completed the purchase on 19 July 2019. Cathay said it would keep running HK Express as a separate, stand-alone low-cost airline rather than fold it into its full-service operation, and the airline left the U-FLY Alliance it had shared with other HNA-linked carriers. Today it describes itself as a member of the Cathay Group, and it has a codeshare agreement with Cathay Pacific.

Fares and fleet

The fare structure is fully unbundled at the bottom end. The cheapest fare, Ultra Lite, covers one small personal item only; Lite adds a cabin bag; Essential adds a 20 kg checked bag; Max includes a cabin bag, a 32 kg checked bag and standard seat selection. Cathay Pacific's 2026 interim results, published on 5 August 2026, list 42 aircraft for HK Express at 30 June 2026, with an average age of 7.7 years:

• 6 Airbus A320-200 and 10 A320neo
• 10 Airbus A321-200 and 16 A321neo

A further 24 A320neo-family aircraft were on order. The A321neo arrived through a 2019 Cathay allocation of 16 aircraft, the first delivered in March 2023. A new livery with a stylised "e" on the tail replaced the Hong Kong skyline design in 2023.

2025–26

On 8 September 2025 HK Express flight UO235 from Beijing Daxing ran off the runway at Hong Kong in severe weather and struck a sign; no injuries were reported. In its 2026 interim results, Cathay's chair cited improved performance from HK Express as one factor in the group's first-half result. The airline has continued to add mainland Chinese routes: a Hong Kong to Hefei service, four times a week with A320ceo aircraft, is scheduled to start on 3 December 2026.