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Cathay Pacific Airways says no significant recovery in sight; “difficult start to 2022”
February 18th 2022
Cathay Pacific Airways chief customer and commercial officer, Ronald Lam, said the Hong Kong-based airline had a difficult start to 2022 amid tightening travel and operational restrictions, including "notably stricter quarantine" for aircrew. Read More » The oneworld alliance member's January traffic report showed it flew 24,699 passengers for the month, down 18.8% from 30,410 in the same 31 days in 2021. In addition to the year-on-year decline, the January figure was 73% below the 92,219 passengers transported by the carrier in December 2021. “Looking ahead in February and beyond, we will operate a highly reduced passenger flight schedule until at least the end of March in view of the extension of quarantine measures for Hong Kong-based aircrew, the flight-specific and place-specific suspension mechanism and the transit ban by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government," Lam said. "We will continue to strive to maintain passenger connectivity to key destinations as much as possible although we are not seeing any signs of significant recovery in passenger travel demand." Lam said capacity is expected to remain about at 2% of pre-COVID-19 levels if the current restrictions in Hong Kong remain in place. The carrier’s full-year financial results are due for release on March 9.
