Cathay Pacific to Record Narrower Loss in 2021

Brussels — Hong Kong airline carrier Cathay Pacific said passenger travel remained extremely subdued throughout 2021, as a result of ongoing travel restrictions and strict quarantine requirements.

Based on preliminary review, the Group is expected to record a consolidated loss attributable to shareholders of approximately 5.6-6.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (720-780 million US dollars).

It is compared to the attributable loss to shareholders of 21.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in the prior year.

The company said the improvement was primarily driven by strong cargo demand, high cargo yield and load factors, together with continued focus on effective cash and cost management.

For the full year of 2021, the number of passengers carried dropped by 84.5 per cent against a 61.8-per-cent decrease in capacity and a 79.5-per-cent decrease in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), as compared to 2020, the company reported.

For December 2021, Cathay Pacific carried a total of 92,219 passengers, an increase of 130.6 per cent compared to December 2020, but a 96.9-per-cent decrease compared to the prepandemic level in December 2019.

For December 2021, RPKs rose 156.5 per cent year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 18.2 percentage points to 36.6 per cent. Capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, increased by 28.6 per cent.

Cathay Pacific noted that the tightened aircrew quarantine requirements and travel restrictions will have a significant impact on its passenger and cargo flight capacity. For the month of January 2022, cargo has reduced to 20 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity and passenger flights have reduced to around 2 per cent of their pre-pandemic capacity.

"Regrettably, the capacity reduction will have an impact on Cathay Pacific's business and we have been evaluating the potential impact of these measures on our operations and cost base. According to our preliminary assessment, we expect these capacity levels to result in an operating cash burn of 1.0-1.5 billion [ Hong Kong dollars] per month from February," chief executive officer Augustus Tang said.