Cathay’s dilemma: Has the game changed permanently?
HONG KONG – Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler, like many other legacy airline chiefs, is wondering whether the global financial crisis has changed things forever at the front of the aircraft.
In an interview with Steve Creedy of The Australian, Tyler – the new chairman of the International Air Transport Association, questioned whether high-yielding premium traffic would ever return in its traditional form.
Tyler said that if there were permanent structural changes in first and business-class travel, as some airline bosses have suggested, full-service carriers would have to reconsider their business models and cost structures.
“In the past, after recessions, premium traffic has bounced back,” he says. “I hope it will again, but I don’t know.”
Tyler said the airline is deciding what to do about the business travel season in the second half from September.
“If we hold our nerve, will our premium travel come back?” he said.
“Or are we going to have to do things to fill flights now by putting on promotions, pricing initiatives or whatever? That’s a decision we have to make quite soon.”
Whatever the decision, Cathay is expected to park five or six passenger aircraft, though not, as rumoured, their early Boeing 777s.
Ian Jarrett
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