Time has arrived for Cathay Pacific to get back on course for sake of Hong Kong
- Cancelled flights have done nothing for the reputation of the city or its flagship carrier, and there needs to be answers as well as an end to chaos
Staffing decisions made during the pandemic have seemingly come home to roost for Hong Kong’s flagship carrier. Hopefully, Cathay Pacific Airways is about to emerge from days of extensive flight cuts, but it must follow through with its pledge to investigate recent disruptions.
After calling off almost 70 flights during the Christmas and New Year holiday citing “higher-than-expected pilot absences caused by seasonal illness”, Cathay has apologised to customers.
Chief operations and service delivery officer Alex McGowan said on Wednesday the airline would set up a task force to “identify and resolve the underlying issues”. McGowan admitted Cathay had underestimated the number of reserve pilots needed to cover the holiday period and acknowledged the result was far below the standards expected by the public.
Concern only deepened on Sunday when Cathay announced it planned to cancel an average of 12 flights a day until the end of February to ensure normal operations for the Lunar New Year peak travel period.
The flights fiasco has dashed Hong Kong’s hopes of quickly regaining its aviation hub credentials. The severity of the situation was reflected in the grave concern expressed on Tuesday by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who told the airline to tackle its capacity problems “very quickly and effectively”.
McGowan said cancellations peaked at 27 flights on January 7 and he promised that fewer services would be cut in coming weeks. He also said Cathay had “worked hard to minimise the impact” and all planned cancellations had now been made.
More than 96 per cent of customers affected between January 1 and February 29 had been offered alternative flight options within 24 hours of their initial departure time.
It is welcome news that the carrier is emerging from its flights chaos, but it must not fail to uncover the causes of the trouble. After all, in October 2020, it announced Hong Kong’s biggest mass lay-offs in three decades, axing 5,300 jobs and closing its regional airline, Cathay Dragon, in a restructuring move resulting from the pandemic.
Fix it as quickly as possible, Hong Kong leader tells Cathay amid flight cuts
About 4,000 cabin crew, 600 pilots, and 700 ground staff and office workers were told they would be made redundant. Others were presented with cost-saving contracts.
Since then, Cathay has been scrambling to recover – setting up pilot training programmes and stepping up recruiting – as it competes with airlines worldwide trying to ramp up to pre-pandemic levels. Now, as Hong Kong seeks to win back its hard-won reputation as an aviation hub, the city cannot afford to see its good name damaged again by more chaos.
