As it embarks on a recovery from three devastating years for its business, Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong International) is looking at options to renew its passenger fleet, in particular for its short-haul and medium-haul network, its chief executive Augustus Tang has said.
The airline had its access to a HKD7.8 billion Hong Kong dollar (USD994 million) loan facility for a further year confirmed last week to support its recuperation from tough and prolonged Covid-related travel restrictions in Hong Kong, which came after the 2019–20 protests in the territory also impacted travel demand.
“We are constantly looking at the fleet requirements,” Tang told Bloomberg News. “We haven’t come up with a decision as to when we will be going to the market, but this is a topic we are looking at very closely, particularly the regional fleet.”
He described the decision as “crucial” but declined to quantify it. But he compared the upcoming renewal to Cathay Pacific’s original purchase of B777 long-haul aircraft from Boeing, which was later expanded in December 2013. The model became the backbone of its intercontinental fleet - it currently operates forty-one B777-300(ER)s and seventeen B777-300s and awaits delivery of twenty-one B777-9s (deliveries now deferred to between the fourth quarter of 2025 and 2028), the ch-aviation fleets module shows. Fifty-one A330-300s, twenty-eight A350-900s, and fifteen A350-1000s make up the remainder of the widebody fleet.
On the narrowbody side, it operates exclusively Airbus jets, namely six A321-200NXs (with ten more to be delivered), four A321-200s, and four A320-200s, while low-cost unit HK Express (UO, Hong Kong International) operates a further eleven A321-200s, ten A320-200Ns, and five A320-200s. However, the B737 MAX will also be considered, Tang said.
“We are looking at every possibility. We are not ruling out anything. The suppliers would love to know exactly what we want, but putting that aside it is bound to be an Airbus or Boeing variant or both,” he said.
In a traffic summary for May, released on June 14, the airline summed up the immediate outlook by saying: “Looking ahead to June and beyond, as travel demand continues to improve over the coming months we will increase passenger flight capacity as much as is practicable under the confines of ongoing restrictions. Cathay Pacific started the year operating flights to 29 destinations and we target to double that by the end of the year.”
However, Cathay Pacific is struggling to find pilots to hire or rehire, its workforce having shrunk by 40% since the start of the pandemic, Bloomberg reported. Greg Hughes, chief operations and service delivery officer, told staff at a virtual meeting: “We still have resignation rates at much higher levels than we’ve historically had. It would be incorrect for me to say that COS18 [contracts with minimal benefits for new employees] is not one of the reasons.” Consequently, the carrier may improve allowances to lure back crew, he said.
