Uh Oh: Cathay Pacific Cutting Flights Due To Weak Demand

Cathay Pacific has had a rough several weeks. There have been huge protests in Hong Kong for months, and that has increasingly impacted the airline.

Not only has it decreased demand for travel to & through Hong Kong, but the airline has also found themselves in hot water with China. We’ve now seen both Cathay Pacific’s CEO & Chairman resign.

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Cathay Pacific’s August Traffic Results

Cathay Pacific has just reported their August traffic numbers, and they’re certainly suffering from what’s going on right now, though frankly it’s not quite as bad was I was expecting (then again, August is a peak traffic month, so…). Comparing August 2019 to August 2018:

• The airline saw an 11.3% drop in passengers
• The airline increased available seat kilometers by 5.1%
• The airline saw a 7.2% decrease in load factors, to 79.9%

Well, with a pretty gloomy short-term forecast, the airline has just updated their schedule to cut quite a few routes.

Cathay Pacific A350 business class

What Routes & Flights Is Cathay Pacific Cutting?

Given the rough short-term forecast for the airline, Cathay Pacific has just announced some route cuts. This is in addition to the recent announcement that they’ll be cutting Vancouver to New York flights as of next spring.

Cathay Pacific will be cutting the following flights, as reported by Airline Route:

• As of October 27, 2019, Cathay Pacific is suspending their 4x weekly flight between Hong Kong and Dublin for the winter
• As of October 27, 2019, Cathay Pacific is canceling one of their Hong Kong to Paris flights, which operates 3x weekly (CX279/278)
• As of October 27, 2019, Cathay Pacific is cutting 3x weekly flights between Hong Kong and New York
• As of October 29, 2019, Cathay Pacific is cutting 3x weekly flights between Hong Kong and Vancouver
• As of October 30, 2019, Cathay Pacific is canceling one of their 5x weekly flights between Hong Kong and Washington
• As of November 1, 2019, Cathay Pacific is canceling one of their Hong Kong to Frankfurt flights, which operates 3x weekly (CX283/282)

In addition to that, we’re seeing select Cathay Dragon flights canceled to Beijing, Medan, and Tokyo Haneda.

Cathay Dragon A330

Cathay Pacific Route Changes Summary

We’re seeing Cathay Pacific cut flights altogether to Dublin (a route they just launched last year), and reduce flights to all kinds of key business markets, like Frankfurt, New York, Paris, Vancouver, and Washington.

Winter can be a tough season for airlines in general, so I’ll be curious to see how his unfolds, and whether we see these routes and frequencies restored, or if we see further cuts.

This sure is a shame, especially as Cathay Pacific had a positive turnaround in 2018, when they were once again profitable. That didn’t last long…