Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific is set to announce a new route to South Africa’s Cape Town.
It will soon confirm year-round service according to airline sources, the South China Morning Post reports.
Nonstop flights from Hong Kong would take about 14 hours and Cathay aims to get in ahead of its main competitors in mainland China.
No Chinese carrier flies there and the only scheduled service from Asia is by Singapore Airlines which flies there via Johannesburg.
The likes of China Eastern, China Southern and Hainan Airlines have been undercutting Cathay on many competitive routes out of East Asia to Europe, Australia and the US.
Cathay is set to post a second successive year of losses for the first time in its history as a result.
"If you want to avoid competition, Cathay Pacific has to find niche markets," Geoffrey Cheng, deputy head of research at Bocom International, said.
The tourism unit of South Africa’s Chinese embassy says 96% of Greater China travellers, including those from Hong Kong and Macau, visiting South Africa, also visit Cape Town.
The country received 132,000 Chinese tourists in 2016.
