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Interview

In Growth Mode

CATHAY PACIFIC AIRLINES
oing into COVID, Cathay Pacific Airways, despite What are the fleet plans going forward?
G the turmoil in Hong Kong was flying high from
virtually every aspect. The pandemic devastated the We have ordered A321neo and A320neos and they will
airline with China’s strict quarantine requirements sti- be delivered through to 2029. So that brings our total
fling efforts to get the airline back on its feet after the new aircraft on order to more than 70, which will be
pandemic. on top of the fleet that we currently have. So, including
some 777-9 we have quite a substantial order to take
Asian Airlines & Aerospace Editor Geoffrey Thomas in the coming years. We plan to take all of the 777-9,
satdown with new Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Ronald and we’re committed to it. The schedule currently is for
Lam to discuss the airline’s recovery and future direc- the first aircraft to arrive in 2025. And we’ve been in
tions. Lam has held a series of senior positions constant dialogue with Boeing. We hope and we believe
with Cathay Pacific. From 2013 to 2017, it will be on schedule, and we need this new flagship
he wasthe Director and GM of HAECO aircraft for our long-haul routes by that time. So we
and was then appointed Director look forward to getting them.
Commercial and Cargo, a position he
held till July 2019. His next appointment We will be exploring different options, but currently
was as Chief Customer and Commercial I don’t think we have anything to share when it
Officer, from August 2019 through to comes to our freighter plan. Currently, we have 20
December 2022. Lam joined the airline as 747 freighters, and as we rebuild, we’ll be looking
a Management Trainee in 1996 and has at various options for the future when it comes to
since held a number of manage- the freighter fleet because Hong Kong, as you
rial roles in Hong Kong and know, is the number one air cargo hub of the
overseas. world in terms of volume, and we are fully
committed to supporting the Hong Kong’s
Cathay Pacific Airways leading status as an air cargo hub.
announced a profit for
the first time in three Coming out of COVID, what changes are
years in August for the Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Ronald Lam you seeing in the routes and passenger
first half of 2023.The expectations? What changes has the air-
net profit figure was HK$4.26 billion (US$546 million). line sensed and what do you feel is going to be the
However, the figure included a one-off gain of HK$1.9 post-COVID world for Cathay?
billion from Cathay’s dilution of its interest in Air China
shares from 18.13 per cent to 16.26 per cent. This result I would say it’s still early days, and we are seeing a lot of
is in stark contrast to a loss for the same period last pent-up demand when it comes to business travel and
year, of HK$4.99 billion. The airline racked up losses leisure travel. And in terms of behavior, I think apart
of HK$33.7 billion in losses over the three years of the from seeing a lot of pent-up demand, I currently do not
pandemic. sense a structural change in travel behavior. I think the
corporates travelers are still traveling as what they did
Cathay Pacific was probably more impacted by COVID before COVID. The leisure travelers are still traveling as
than any other airline, as far as returning to normal. per what they did before COVID. So, it is too early to
What’s the situation with your fleet? say, but there was a fear before COVID that a lot of the
business travel, for example, would die down because
As of end of June, our total fleet across the group is of the usage of video and all that.
225, and at that time we still had 25 aircraft parked
in Alice Springs, Australia. Well, it’s now less than 10 Can you give us a bit of an update on where your cabin
per cent of our fleet. And as of today actually, we’re product refresh is going?
running down to 21. Yeah. And our plan is to bring
all of them back sometime by first half of next year. I think it’s first probably worth saying that I think we
Yeah, I think gradually we’ll run it down and then it will couldn’t invest for three years because of COVID,
become a history. because we were the hardest hit airline of the world

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