One of the highlights of the CAPA Leader Summit 2022, which took place in Manchester late last week, arrived right at the first panel. The President of Emirates Airline, Sir Tim Clark, said «we may or may not have Cathay Pacific [going forward]… that’s anybody’s guess out there.»
The statement came in a discussion named «Setting the Scene: Never waste a good crisis! Why haven’t more airlines disappeared?», and included other CEOs, namely Etihad’s, Tony Douglas, Kenya Airways’, Allan Kilavuka, and SAS’, Anko van der Werff.
https://twitter.com/joaointhesky/status/1511996671843975168
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has been struggling since 2019 — that is, before COVID hit the world. First, the protests in Hong Kong started to ruin demand to and from Hong Kong, and then the pandemic arrived. Health restrictions in the city have barred any type of recovery in passenger traffic since.
Cathay operated 2% of its pre-COVID passenger capacity in February, less than January — since the Special Administrative Region of China saw its first huge COVID-19 wave since the onset of the pandemic in said monts.
Even cargo is lacking, such are the restrictions: capacity in February was at 25% of pre-COVID numbers. Numbers were extracted from an investors filing by the airline.
This comes in a period where in February, again compared to the same month in 2019, Etihad Airways’ passengers capacity by ASKs is at 42% of pre-pandemic levels, Emirates’ is at 58% and Qatar Airways’ is at 77%. Data was gathered with Cirium’s Diio Mi application.
Although Emirates and Cathay Pacific do have an interline agreement, as per the Emirati carrier’s website, Sir Tim Clark’s bold statement could be largely self-interested, as Cathay’s westbound long-haul services directly competed with Emirates’, which carried passengers to Hong Kong through its hub in Dubai.
On April 2019, according to Cirium, Emirates operated 180 flights between Dubai and Hong Kong and vice-versa — over three flights a day each way, while Cathay Pacific operated 90, which makes for around 11 a week each way. Currently, there are none.
