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Cathay Pacific cutting New York fifth freedom flights
Reeling from a 12% decline in passengers in August, Cathay Pacific is making capacity cuts across its network.
The airline will end its fifth-freedom service linking Vancouver and New York City John F. Kennedy Airport.
It will end the route in April 2020, after more than 20 years of operation.
The route actually dates back to when the carrier didn’t have aircraft with a long enough range to fly nonstop to New York JFK.
So the five-hour Vancouver-New York leg will disappear.
Cathay is also cutting back on Hong Kong – Vancouver frequencies.
It is the first of what could be several routes to be revised following a summer of turbulence.
The airline has been right at the heart of the protest movement in Hong Kong, attracting scorn from Beijing and a de facto boycott from many Chinese customers.
August passenger numbers were down 11.3% which partly masked a massive 38% decline in inbound passenger traffic to Hong Kong, due to the ongoing protests.
"Given the current significant decline in forward bookings for the remainder of the year, we will make some short-term tactical measures such as capacity realignments," Cathay chief customer and commercial Officer Ronald Lam said
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