Cathay Pacific Cuts March Schedule by 75%
Cathay Pacific has 120 planes sitting on the tarmac at any given time. That is about half of its fleet. The airline’s flying schedules for March show a decline of around 75%. And the number of planed on the ground was likely to rise as Cathay warned of further cuts in flight schedules.
Originally, around 1,470 flights per week were scheduled in March for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon. That number is now down to just about 350. For comparison, during the Sars crisis back in 2003 Cathay reduced its passenger schedule by 45%.
“We are continuously assessing our fleet and aircraft deployment in order to best align capacity with market demand,” a spokeswoman for the airline told SCMP, declining to address the number of parked planes.
Last week, Cathay said 75 per cent of staff, or 25,000 employees of the group, would take unpaid leave.
Many airlines are feeling the downturn in air travel due to the coronavirus epidemic that is now spreading outside Asia to Europe and the United States.
[…] Carriers throughout the globe have been reducing again on flights because of the coronavirus that has been spreading to new international locations, with the variety of instances surpassing 100,000. Airways and inns have taken a significant hit and have needed to scramble by reducing again on their schedules, providing waived cancellation charges and decrease costs. Cathay reduce its March schedule by 75%. […]