CX 946 Hong Kong - Xian
9 Oct 2025
Economy Class

I first visited Xian in 2012 when I found Dragonair had released redemption seats despite not having officially announced opening the route. 13 years later, I returned for a 2nd trip, but Dragonair doesn't exist anymore and its former parent Cathay Pacific now flies the route.

However, this isn't another Xian adventure. It's just a stopping point for Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu. It's not that easy to fly there directly from Hong Kong, and Xian is the closest port that Cathay can take me. Nevertheless, it's only a 3 hour high-speed train ride from Xian to Yinchuan in Ningxia, and another 3 hour trip back to Xian from Lanzhou to finish the trip.

This is just after the Golden Week holiday, a time we should all avoid travelling in China, where even these remote corners can get super crowded. Mid-October is probably the tail end of the tourist season before it gets too cold.

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With a 11:10am departure, I reached the airport an hour and a half early to drop off my bags and do some plane spotting. Security here is usually quick as they now use the newer scanners and you don't need to take your electronics out.

Labubu has swept the world, fanning fights in London and long lines elsewhere. There apparently is a big one here at Hong Kong airport but I could only find these smaller ones.

There is a larger Fortnum and Mason shop which I hadn't noticed previously. I had just flown in from London a few days earlier and they're usually a good choice for some British souvenirs.

Another shop I quite like is this Moroccan cafe. A while ago, I ventured into their shop at IFC Mall and got their famous pistachio croissant. I also tried them out in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the year as well, with the same croissant costing significantly less.

There are a few other new shops that I hadn't seen before, including the fancy % coffee shop and a packaging-free store to promote environmentalism.

Not interested to shop, I headed up the sky bridge instead to check out the new terminal under construction.

It wasn't that long ago when Cathay operated solely widebodies. Dragonair used to have a lot of the narrowbodies but with that brand gone, Cathay has started flying a few smaller Airbuses.

At the far end of the bridge is a scale model of the airport's future state. The third runway at the top is now in use but the new terminal next to it is still under construction but should come online in another year or so.

Satisfied, I headed back to gate 3 for my flight, which was almost ready to board. The airport is nearing 30 years old, and has recently been renovated with new chairs, desks, and carpets.

Hong Kong actually isn't so well connected to the secondary mainland Chinese as Shenzhen. Xian is a good example of this, with Cathay flying once a day only and China Eastern not even flying daily. Contrast that to all the frequencies to Japan's secondary cities amidst the low-cost airline boom.

Today's flight is operated by an older A330. Although it's an old design, its features are still quite smart to this day, such as the small compartment to hold your phone and the beverage holder so you don't need to open your tray table.

We pushed back on time at 11:13am for the 3 hour flight to Xian. Considering it's just after the official Golden Week holiday, the flight is quite full.

With a right window, I anticipated nice views of the city on departure as we took off towards the east. However, just as we reached the urban area, clouds obstructed a lot of the views but I was patient and ended up with a few decent photos.

With the 3rd runway coming into use, departure flight paths have changed with today's flight taking a more northerly route, offering better views of the city as we don't need to turn and fly right over the harbour anymore.

Then we turned north to cross into China and continue our journey to Xian.

They've done some changes to the soft product to promote environmentalism. Headphones are no longer wrapped in plastic but in a paper pouch.

There were 2 choices for lunch - chicken rice or seafood pasta. I picked the pasta and it tasted decent with a nice lobster-like sauce base and bits of squid and small shrimp. The Haagen Daz ice-cream is fairly standard for Hong Kong departures.

The weather stayed decent throught the journey and it as soon time to descend to Xian. That's when the skies turned cloudy. Going through the flight map on the IFE, I noticed we seem to have taken a longer route looping around to reach Xian, which was strange because there are no major storms along the way. But it's China after all, where civilian airspace is tightly regulated as are the set flight paths.

I couldn't even see the ground until seconds before touch-down. Ningxia's weather forecast for the next few days didn't look good either with clouds and rain. Why would it rain in the desert?

We landed at 2:15pm and pulled into a fairly empty Terminal 5. I saw parts of the tarmac cordoned off so they don't seem to be fully open yet.

Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan arrivals are classified as international as we have our special ID cards to enter China. Outside the big major airports such as Beijing Capital, Shanghai Pudong, and Guangzhou, other Chinese airports' international sections tend to be quiet, so I usually enjoy going through the empty terminals despite being in a huge city of many millions. Xian falls into this category with only 1 other plane parked here this afternoon.

Exiting the plane, this new terminal only opened a few months earlier and everything looked bright and spacious, just like Beijing Daxing airport I used last year. There were no crowds and it was a breeze through the automated immigration gates and my luggage didn't take too long to come out after.

However, for a new airport, they designed the arrival experience with lengthy walks. It took a long time to walk to the rideshare pick-up zone, where the smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. However, signage is not too good as my driver was waiting in another spot that we couldn't see even though we were already standing in the pick-up area. Apparently, there is another pick-up area a few steps ahead but blocked from view by a wall.

Cathay offers a good product with a hot meal for the short flight.

Xian's new Terminal 5 is also a very good facility to use with no crowds.

A little over half an hour later, I was at the North high-speed train station and very early for my train to Ningxia. The metro's Line 14 also makes this trip out but the cost of a rideshare wasn't too much more and very affordable by international standards.