No Immediate Plans For More Job Cuts: Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday there were no immediate plans to cut more jobs at the airline, but warned it was still in "survival mode" after posting a record loss and they needed to be "ready for anything".

Hong Kong’s flag carrier axed 8,500 jobs in October as part of a major group restructuring as it struggles to survive the pandemic. It also closed its subsidiary Cathay Dragon.

Earlier on Wednesday it reported a record HK$21.6 billion loss for 2020, a year that chairman Patrick Healy said had been the "most challenging" in the airline's 70-year history.

"When we announced that restructuring, we did so on the basis of certain assumptions about 2021,” Healy told reporters at a press briefing. “Those assumptions were that the first half we’d be operating at well under 25 percent of passenger capacity, that we would see some improvement for the second half, but that overall for 2021 we would still be operating below 50 percent.”

“When we look at our situation today, we would say that those statements are largely valid," he added.

Asked if the airline would consider another round of job cuts, Healy would only say there were “no immediate plans for further action of that type”. But he said that the situation was dynamic and uncertain, so they were not in a position to rule anything out.

Healy also said it was still too early to say when travel would return to pre-pandemic levels, with much depending on how effective and widespread global vaccination programmes are.

Healy said with more flight crew now getting vaccinated, he is hoping quarantine restrictions will soon be eased:

The airline also said it would keep executive pay slashed and ask staff to go on a third round of unpaid leave, to which some 80 percent of employees have already signed up.