Cathay implements cost saving measures
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Cathay Pacific Airways has announced a series of measures to help it deal with a drop in business resulting from the current economic downturn. The airline will reduce passenger capacity by 8% and overall cargo capacity by 11% from May. At the same time, the airline will introduce a four-tier, top-down Special Leave Scheme under which all 17,000 staff will be asked to take unpaid leave varying from one to four weeks according to their seniority.
Cathay Pacific’s CEO, Tony Tyler, said; “In the first quarter of 2009 we saw a marked deterioration in our business compared to the same period last year. Turnover for the first three months of this year was 22.4% lower than the same quarter in 2008. We have no option but to take measures that will help us weather the current storm and maintain the long-term sustainability of the business.”
For passenger flights there will be a reduction in flight frequencies or seat capacity to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Mumbai and Dubai. At the same time, additional flights will be mounted to Denpasar, Sapporo and Bahrain. Dragonair will also see a 13% cut in capacity. Flight services to Bengaluru, Busan, Sanya and Shanghai will be reduced while services to Fukuoka, Dalian, Shenyang, Guilin and Xian will be suspended.
Under a Special Leave Scheme, all of the airline’s 13,600 HK-based and 3,400 overseas staff will be asked to take unpaid leave of one to four weeks between 1 May 2009 and 30 April 2010.
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