Cathay Pacific is bracing for an ‘extremely challenging’ first half of 2020 that will likely see a substantial loss.
It just had a ‘turbulent year’ in 2019 with months of pro-democracy protests across Hong Kong and saw net profit decline to HK$1.69 billion, which was down from HK$2.35 billion in 2018.
"We expect to incur a substantial loss for the first half of 2020," said chairman Patrick Healy.
Seat capacity is expected to be down 65% in March and April and the airline handled 82% less passengers in February.
More than 100 planes have been grounded.
About 80% of its workforce has agreed to take three weeks of voluntary unpaid leave to help cut payroll costs.
"Cathay Pacific has been through challenging times before, but the scale that we are facing in the current situation really is an unprecedented challenge," Healy said.
"We have no idea when a recovery will take place and we don’t know exactly what it would look like," he said.
"All we know is we remain in a very dynamic situation."
According to chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam the airline is in discussions with both Boeing and Airbus about deferring deliveries of new planes.
