Hong Kong International Airport

[hkskyline]

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways promises to shake up roster system to improve pilots’ pay
South China Morning Post Excerpt
Sep 21, 2023

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has promised to improve pilots’ pay in another concession to disgruntled cockpit crew, a month after the city’s flag carrier posted its first half-year profit in three years.

The airline announced on Thursday it would introduce a new allowance for pilots from January to help reduce the impact of the company’s rostering system.

Captain Chris Kempis, Cathay’s director of flight operations, said the move would give pilots “further stability” when it came to pay.

More : https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...ove-pilots-pay

[hkskyline]

CX 'underestimated' the number of pilots needed
RTHK Excerpt
Jan 10, 2024

Cathay Pacific admitted on Wednesday that it had underestimated the number of pilots it needed in reserve to maintain its normal operations, leading to recent flight cancellations.

In a statement, the airline's chief operations and service delivery officer, Alex McGowan, regretted having to cancel flights at short notice, and acknowledged that it was failing to live up to the standard expected by customers.

“I would like to extend a sincere apology to our customers affected by recent travel disruptions. Over the Christmas and New Year period, we underestimated the number of reserve pilots we would need,” he said

More : https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compone...abChangeable=0

[hkskyline]

Too few pilots, chaotic rosters. Why Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific is cancelling flights and its vow that worst is over may be too optimistic
South China Morning Post Excerpt
Jan 11, 2024

When Peggy Li’s uncle died on New Year’s Eve, the Dubai-based hospitality industry worker immediately booked a ticket to fly home to Hong Kong for the funeral.

She decided to fly with Cathay Pacific Airways, which she used regularly over the past three decades, as the schedule suited her needs and she preferred the extra legroom available in premium economy class.

But Li would now think twice before flying with Cathay again, she said. Seventy-two hours after she bought her ticket, the airline sent her a text message saying her flight to Hong Kong had been cancelled, just one of many the company axed this week.

More : Too few pilots, roster chaos: behind Cathay Pacific’s flight cancellations

[hkskyline]

CathayPacific_B-KPV_a by Bill Wong, on Flickr

[hkskyline]

Hong Kong airport operator’s retail bonds take off on first day of sales, HSBC and BOCHK say
South China Morning Post Excerpt
Jan 17, 2024

Airport Authority Hong Kong’s (AAHK) highly anticipated HK$5 billion (US$640 million) retail bonds attracted a huge response when subscriptions opened on Wednesday, banks and brokers said.

In fact, demand for the notes matched the popularity of the Hong Kong government’s green bonds issued in September last year, according to HSBC, Hong Kong’s biggest bank and a co-arranger of the deal.

“Compared to the retail green bond issuance by the Hong Kong government last year, we received a similar volume of customer applications on the first day of subscriptions for the retail bond issued by the Airport Authority,” an HSBC spokesman said. The government’s HK$20 billion retail green bonds attracted 321,018 subscriptions, which raised the final subscription amount to HK$30 billion, according to government data.

More : https://www.scmp.com/business/bankin...-and-bochk-say

[hkskyline]

Hong Kong’s airport logs post-Covid record passenger numbers over festive season
South China Morning Post Excerpt
Jan 22, 2024

Hong Kong’s air passenger traffic figures climbed to 75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels last month, but staff shortages and slower-than-expected recovery of outbound demand from mainland China remain a concern for a full recovery this year, analysts have said.

The Airport Authority reported on Monday that a year high of 4.3 million passengers passed through the airport in December – 75 per cent of the figure for the same month in 2019, before Covid-19 hit.

The authority said that daily passenger volumes and flights had recovered to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels over the Christmas peak. Traffic to and from Southeast Asia, the mainland and Taiwan logged the biggest increases.

“Air traffic at Hong Kong International Airport continued to recover in 2023,” the authority said.

The airport handled 40 million passengers over the whole of last year, 56 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. There were 71.5 million passengers in 2019.

More : https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...festive-season

[hkskyline]

Cathay Pacific releases traffic figures for January 2024
Press Release Excerpt
Feb 22, 2024

Cathay Pacific today released its traffic figures for January 2024. The Cathay Group, comprising Cathay Pacific and HK Express, carried over two million passengers during the month, averaging more than 70,000 passengers per day.

Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,717,200 passengers in January 2024, an increase of 66.4% compared with January 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 56.7% year on year. Passenger load factor decreased by 4 percentage points to 82.8%, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 64.2% year on year.

The airline carried 114,790 tonnes of cargo in January 2024, an increase of 20.7% compared with January 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 11.4% year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 3.6 percentage points to 58.6%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 18.3% year on year.

More : https://news.cathaypacific.com/catha...r-january-2024

[dchan]

My parents just flew on Cathay yesterday from JFK in NYC. It's been over 4 years since they went back to China, whereas they used to go every year before 2020. Before, they flew directly to Guangzhou Baiyun airport, but the flights directly to China have become much more restricted and expensive. So they resurrected an old route that they used to fly.

I'd imagine that HK airport is doing very well nowadays due to the relative lack of PRC flight availability.

[hkskyline]

IMG_9669 by Kwok Ho Eddie Wong, on Flickr

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by dchan

My parents just flew on Cathay yesterday from JFK in NYC. It's been over 4 years since they went back to China, whereas they used to go every year before 2020. Before, they flew directly to Guangzhou Baiyun airport, but the flights directly to China have become much more restricted and expensive. So they resurrected an old route that they used to fly.

I'd imagine that HK airport is doing very well nowadays due to the relative lack of PRC flight availability.

Yes, and no. I see a lot of Mandarin-speaking passengers on long-haul flights, but mainland Chinese are not flying out of the country for tourism in droves given the economic slowdown. Many countries in the region and out in Europe have commented the post-pandemic travel frenzy hasn't returned for this group.

[dchan]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Yes, and no. I see a lot of Mandarin-speaking passengers on long-haul flights, but mainland Chinese are not flying out of the country for tourism in droves given the economic slowdown. Many countries in the region and out in Europe have commented the post-pandemic travel frenzy hasn't returned for this group.

That sounds correct. It makes me want to travel now. I really can't stand obnoxious mainlander tourists.

I actually meant that more travelers going to China are once again using HK airport as their gateway into the region, and taking other transportation into China (buses, high speed train, maybe even connecting flights). My parents would have flown to GZ Baiyun if the tickets were a more reasonable price from NYC.

I believe they took a bus from the border crossing to GZ. High speed train is faster going to GZ, but the train station is far from the city center and requires a long subway ride (with a transfer) to get close to their hotel (it's walkable from the subway station, but they are both 76 years old). By contrast, the bus drops them closer to their hotel, just a short cab ride away.