Cathay Pacific announced more flight cancellations yesterday as its pilots entered the sixth day of their work slowdown.
But the long lines and frustrated travellers have largely disappeared, as other airlines return to their normal flight schedules in the wake of Typhoon Utor, which has disrupted air travel in the past few days.
Cathay said it has canceled 41 flights out of the 129 flights originally scheduled for yesterday, and that 37 flights have been delayed by more than 15 minutes.
PHOTO: AP
Cathay on Saturday said it would cut its flights by 20 percent and charter five more aircraft to cope with mounting delays.
Cathay said in a statement the reduced schedule was due to the aftermath of Typhoon Utor and escalating industrial action by the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Association (AOA).
The cutbacks were the clearest evidence yet that a "work-to-rule" slowdown by pilots over pay was hurting the carrier.
Cathay also said increasing numbers of pilots had called in sick over the past few days. "These are significantly above normal levels and appear to be related to the AOA's plan to escalate industrial action," it said.
The airline was temporarily suspending flights to Adelaide, Cairns and Perth, Australia; Colombo; Delhi; Hanoi; Karachi; Manchester, England; New York; and Penang, Malaysia.
"We are doing this until we can be sure of operating a reliable, albeit reduced, schedule for our passengers," Cathay Director of Corporate Development Tony Tyler said in a statement. "This is only a temporary measure and we will restore a full schedule as soon as we can."
Cathay yesterday cancelled three Taiwan-Japan flights. The three flights are Taipei-Tokyo, Taipei-Nagoya and Taipei-Osaka. About 1,000 passengers were affected during the day.
Cathay Pacific's Taipei office said it does not know when the "suspension of flights" will come to an end, but "we will make an announcement when flights return to normal."
Passengers pile up
Cathay, which handles about a third of all passengers and cargo passing through Hong Kong, said it cancelled 39 flights on Saturday due to continued disruption caused by the typhoon and cancelled 56 out of 132 scheduled flights on Friday.
Utor pounded the southern China coast on Friday where it killed two people and virtually shut down Hong Kong's airport. It cut a deadly swathe through the Philippines and Taiwan earlier in the week.
Cathay said it lodged about 1,000 passengers in hotels overnight because of the disruption, adding that 100 flights experienced delays of 15 minutes or more on Friday.
Hong Kong's airport authority said more than 600 flights had been delayed or cancelled since Friday because of the typhoon.
Cathay said it would operate about 80 percent of its normal schedule with its own aircraft, chartered planes and flights operated by other airlines at its request.
Charter fleet grows
On Saturday it chartered two Boeing MD-90 narrow-body airliners from China Northern Airlines, two wide-body Boeing 777-200s from China Southern Airlines and one Airbus A300-600 from China Northwest, bringing its charter fleet to 15 aircraft.
Other aircraft and crews were being supplied by Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airline System and Taiwan-based China Airlines (
Union spokesman John Findlay, general secretary of the AOA which represents 1,200 of the airline's 1,400 pilots, reported no change in the dispute.
"There are no new developments from our side," Findlay said. "We've heard nothing from the company so it seems that they haven't changed their policy."
But he said, "The vibes we're getting are that their position is hardening."
The pilots have demanded that Cathay reverse a 1999 pay cut in the wake of the airline's record 2000 profit of HK$5 billion (US$641 million).
Cathay shares last closed at HK$10.50 on Thursday.
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