Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) yesterday reported its first annual operating profit since 2019 as the airline fights to return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic flight capacity.
The airline has struggled to catch up with regional rivals, such as Singapore Airlines Ltd, as Hong Kong only began axing harsh pandemic curbs — including mandatory hotel quarantine and strict testing requirements — in the second half of last year.
“Cathay Pacific has experienced three challenging years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2022 very much being a year of two halves,” Cathay Pacific chairman Patrick Healy said in a statement announcing the results, referring to a “marked improvement” in performance later in the year.
Photo: Reuters
The company said in its statement that it operated at one-third of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity in December last year, but expects to reach 70 percent by the end of this year.
It reported an operating profit of HK$3.55 billion (US$452 million) last year, but suffered a loss attributable to shareholders of HK$6.5 billion, weighed down by losses incurred by its associate companies.
Cathay carried 2.8 million passengers last year — nearly four times that of 2021 — which brought in US$1.7 billion in revenue.
Ronald Lam (林紹波), who took over as CEO at the start of this year, said Cathay would seek to lead the market for the “Greater Bay Area,” Beijing’s regional development blueprint for Hong Kong and surrounding southern Chinese cities.
Last year, the company was buoyed by strong cargo operations, which raked in US$3.4 billion, operating at two-thirds of pre-pandemic capacity by the end of the year.
Last week, it gave away more than 50,000 flights to Hong Kong from Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines as part of the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” promotion campaign for tourists.
The company earlier said it was “very encouraged by the enthusiastic response” to that promotion, with the event drawing long online waiting times and tickets being snapped up within hours.
Hong Kong’s airport in January saw 2.1 million visitors — a major uptick compared with preceding months, but still only one-third of 2019 levels.
Cathay’s flight attendants’ union in January began a work-to-rule labor action after accusing the airline of putting a low priority on “providing reliable and practicable working conditions,” and competitive pay.
The company said at the time that most of the roster issues had been resolved and that flight services would continue as scheduled.
However, Hong Kong continues to face major hurdles to retaking its place as a regional transport hub. In January, about 20 regional Asian airlines said they were unable to restart services in Hong Kong, because of shortages of ground staff.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
RSS