By November 2019 the airline was facing severe financial difficulties due to the ongoing Sino-US trade conflict, coupled with political and social unrest in Hong Kong and was reportedly unable to pay the employees salaries on time. On 29 November the airline announced that it would end its remaining long-haul flights, to Los Angeles and Vancouver, from February 2020, leaving HKA as a purely regional airline. It also announced the termination of its in-flight entertainment system from 1 December 2019, to cut costs.