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Cathay Pacific's CCO says airline expecting “very substantial” interim loss
June 21st 2021
Cathay Pacific group chief customer and commercial officer, Ronald Lam, said the airline group was expecting a "very substantial" loss for the first half of calendar 2021 financial year amid ongoing travel restrictions and quarantine requirements due to the pandemic. Read More » However, Lam said the loss for the six months to June 30, 2021 would be less than the HK$9.9 billion (US$1.3 billion) net loss for the first half of 2020 and the $11.8 billion net loss of the second half of calendar 2020. "With the cost-saving measures implemented in 2020 - which are continuing - and a strong underlying cargo performance, our losses in the first half of 2021, while still very substantial, are expected to be somewhat lower than those reported in the first and second halves of 2020," Lam said in the airline’s monthly traffic report. The company aims to reach 30% of its pre-COVID-19 capacity by the final three months of 2021 compared with 3.5% last month. The airline group flew 24,006 passengers in May, up 7.2% from 22,404 passengers in April and a 30% improvement over May 2020's total of 18,473. However, the reported month’s numbers were down 99.2% from pre-COVID-19 levels of three million passengers transported two years ago. Lam said 90% of Cathay Pacific pilots and 64% of its cabin crew either had booked or received COVID-19 jabs.
