Cathay Pacific Airways will be cutting 96% of their passenger capacity in April and May; as countries are now scaling up travel restrictions and dampening travel demand.
According to SCMP, this will be the steepest flight cuts in their history, with the number of passengers falling down from 99,000 to 11,000 passengers on certain days. It is projected that close to 200 out of 236 aircraft will be grounded with the latest round of cuts.
Although cargo demand and high freight rates have created some buffer for the airline, Cathay Pacific has reported HKD $2 billion ($257 million) loss just in February alone. Earlier today, Hong Kong Express, the budget arm of Cathay Pacific, also announced a temporary suspension to all flight operations in order to preserve cash.
Operating a bare skeleton passenger flight schedule in the coming two months, Cathay Pacific will be flying three times weekly to these twelve destinations:
In addition, Cathay Dragon will be flying three times weekly to these three destinations:
“As Hong Kong’s home airlines, it is important that we continue to provide important passenger and cargo connections to and from the Hong Kong hub. We will therefore endeavour to maintain a minimal number of flights to and from key destinations in our network to ensure these vital arteries remain open”
– Roland Lam, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer.
Nevertheless, the sustainability of these schedules is still largely dependent on the travel restriction imposed by the governments around the world.
Featured Image: SCMP
Cargo. Air cargo rate shot up due to limited capacity with flights cut
Cathay Pacific also continue their flight schedule to SUB (Surabaya, Indonesia) every 2 days and DPS (Denpasar, Indonesia) daily