Last year, the carrier earned 6 billion Hong Kong dollars (Bt27.6 billion) on revenue of HK$102.34 billion.

James Tong, director of corporate affairs, told The Nation late on Monday after a press conference to celebrate the airline’s first new Airbus A350-900XWB that the company also was interested in expanding in Asean countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

In Thailand, it is studying route expansion after succeeding in managing its three direct flights to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.

“Asean is a potential market for our expansion after our fleet increases from 144 aircraft this year to 214 in 2020 after the delivery of 70 new aircraft from this year until 2020,” he said.

The first new aircraft in its fleet is the Airbus A350-900 XWB. It arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Toulouse, France, on Sunday.

This is the first of 22 new Airbus A350-900s that will be delivered until 2017.

The next new aircraft are 26 Airbus A350-1000s that will be delivered from 2018-20.

They will be followed by 21 new Boeing 777-9Xs and a Boeing 747-8F, which will also arrive by 2020.

Tong said the first Airbus A350-900 would start flying from Hong Kong to Manila today.

“Other new Airbus A350-900s that will be delivered this year will start to fly from Hong Kong to Asian countries including Thailand. We will start to use the Airbus A350-900 to fly the route from Hong Kong to Bangkok within a few months,” he said.

Rupert Hogg, Cathay’s chief operating officer, said at the ceremony that after flying short hauls in Asia, the Airbus A350-900, which is configured with 280 seats – 38 in business class, 28 in premium economy and 214 in economy – would serve non-stop flights to Europe and North America next year.