12 August 2008

More Australia, less North America for Cathay

HONG KONG Ã¢â¬' Cathay Pacific is realigning its capacity, including a reduction of flights to North America, as it attempts to counter the extra costs of fuel.

The move will reduce the number of flights to North America by 10, while adding the additional flights to Australia and upgrading to a bigger aircraft for 14 European flights each week.

Overall, the changes result in no difference in planned capacity at the airline.

Cathay Pacific is to increase flights between Hong Kong and Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.

Effective from October 26, Perth will have a daily service with the addition of two additional flights a week, while Brisbane will move to 10 flights a week and Sydney, currently with 25 flights per week, will offer four flights each day.

In July the carrier announced it would add four new flights a week to Dubai and Bahrain, while reducing Toronto services by three a week and Vancouver by four a week.

In addition, New Zealand will go back to a twice-daily service from the winter while the service between Hong Kong and Riyadh will fly direct, rather than route through Bahrain.

Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler said, Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe extent of the impact fuel prices are having on our business was underlined when we announced a loss of HK$663 million in our interim results last week.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe have to maximise our earnings during this difficult period which is why are moving our capacity."

In the latest redeployment, the carrier will suspend the daily CX884/5 service to and from Los Angeles with effect from 26 October.

The route will then operate as a double-daily service until winter 2009 when the suspended service will be reinstated on four days a week, moving back to daily by December 2009.

In Canada, the Vancouver route will be served by 14 flights a week instead of 17 as the CX836/5 service will be suspended from 26 October. The airline currently operates three flights daily but this will drop to 17 with effect from 16 September.

In a move to maximise revenue potential on key European routes, Cathay Pacific will also upgrade two existing services.

The daily flight to Amsterdam will change from an A340-300 to the larger Boeing 747-400 from 26 October, as will the daily CX253/4 flight to and from London.