City passengers travelling to destinations such as Seoul or Tokyo might miss out on reasonable deals as interline agreements between Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific, its subsidiary Dragon Air and Kingfisher Airlines, are likely to be terminated on Friday.
Interline
agreements allow airlines to book passengers on each other’s flights at fares cheaper than normal.
On Thursday, Cathay Pacific issued a notice to travel agents asking them not to book Kingfisher passengers on their flights as the agreement would end on February 10.
While industry sources said Cathay called off the tie-up owing to defaults in payments by Kingfisher, the domestic carrier denied it. “Kingfisher Airlines is not in default of any payments,” said a Kingfisher spokesperson.
“Fates of passengers already booked to travel on these airlines in the next few days hang in uncertainty owing to the contradiction in the stand of both airlines,” said travel agents.
On Monday, Korean Air denied boarding to the Chopras a Goa-based family at Seoul airport because their interline tie-up with Kingfisher had ended.