British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has confirmed it would close its Hong Kong International crew base in October 2018 and instead operate its services to and from the city with London-based staff. South China Morning Post has reported that 57 of the British carrier's 87 employees in Hong Kong have already been laid off.

Another 24 employees will be terminated at the end of October. The local staff called the move "ugly" and would appeal to the UK-based labour unions.

"While we are really grateful to our crew in Hong Kong for all of their hard work and dedication over the years, our strategic model going forward is to operate this route entirely with London-based crew," a BA spokesperson said.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, British Airways currently operates to Hong Kong 14x weekly out of London Heathrow using A380-800 and B777-300(ER) equipment. Its competitors on the route are Cathay Pacific with 35 weekly flights to Heathrow and six to London Gatwick and Virgin Atlantic which flies 7x weekly out of Heathrow. Hong Kong Airlines is also mulling flights to London.