As a group, comprising Cathay Pacific and HK Express, Cathay is now close to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels, and on track to achieving its target of 70 per cent covering 80 destinations by the end of this year.
“We’re confident of reaching 100% by the end of 2024,” Cathay chairman, Patrick Healy, said at the airline’s results presentation in Hong Kong on 9 August.
For the first half of 2023, Hong Kong’s Cathay Group, including its airlines, subsidiaries and associates, reported an attributable profit of HK$4.3 billion (US$550 million). This compares with a loss of HK$5 billion in the first half of 2022.
The group has been operating cash generative so far in 2023 and its liquidity balance was HK$28.9 billion as at 30 June 2023.
Cathay today confirmed that it would purchase up to 32 additional single-aisle Airbus A320 neo and A321 neo aircraft, which are expected to be delivered by 2029 and will join the fleets of Cathay Pacific and HK Express. This will bring the group’s new aircraft deliveries to up to more than 70 units.
As teased earlier this week, Cathay today confirmed “an all-new Business Class experience in the second quarter of 2024”, as part of a redesign of its long-haul Boeing 777-300ER cabins.
This will be followed by “a new world-leading First Class cabin onboard our 777-9 aircraft,” the first of which is scheduled to join the Cathay fleet in 2025.
Cathay reopened its Hong Kong International Airport lounges – ‘The Deck’ in February and ‘The Wing Business’ in March.
In the Americas, the airline resumed first class services on selected Los Angeles flights from March onwards, and it announced the resumption of its Chicago service from 3 October with three return flights a week.
In Europe, during the past six months Cathay progressively increased flight frequencies on a number of our routes, including returning to London’s Heathrow up to five times a day.
In North Asia, the oneworld carrier resumed operating flights to Xi’an in January; Wenzhou in February; and Shanghai (Hongqiao), Haikou, Nagoya in March.
The Cathay Tokyo (Narita) lounge reopened in a new location in February, and its Beijing airport lounge resumed operations in March.
Furthermore, the airline resumed first class service on select Beijing flights from March onwards.
Leading up to the peak summer months, Cathay progressively added more flights to Japan, operating more than 100 return flights per week to six airports in five cities in Japan in June.
Cathay also resumed nonstop flights between Taipei and Tokyo (Narita) in May, and between Taipei and Osaka in June.
Across Southeast Asia, Cathay resumed flights to Phuket in January, and it reopened its Singapore lounge in February, and its Bangkok and Manila lounges in March.
Moreover, Cathay has announced the resumption of its Johannesburg service from 1 August with three return flights a week, once again connecting Hong Kong nonstop with Africa.
