Cathay Pacific 2013 Annual Report Download - page 8

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Interim Report 20136
2013 Interim Review
• We have begun work on The Bridge at Hong
Kong International Airport. This will be our
fifth departure lounge at the airport. The 2,600
square-metre facility will be a new lounge with
shower facilities and more than 360 seats.
Situated near Gate 40 at the airport, The Bridge
will open later in 2013.
• The professionalism of the Cathay Pacific team
was highlighted when the airline received the
World’s Best Cabin Staff award at the Skytrax
World Airline Awards in June. Cathay Pacific
was also named the Best Transpacific Airline.
• Dragonair was also a winner at the Skytrax
World Airline Awards. The carrier received the
World’s Best Regional Airline award for the third
time– the first time for any airline to achieve
this– and also received the Best Regional Airline
in Asia award.
HUB DEVELOPMENT
• The Cathay Pacific Group remains committed
to the long-term development of Hong Kong
International Airport as a premier international
hub for passenger and cargo traffic. We
continue to develop our networks and
frequencies where this is possible, so providing
customers with more choice. We also work
to improve the connections available through
Hong Kong.
• In February, we opened our new Cathay Pacific
cargo terminal at Hong Kong International
Airport. This HK$5.9 billion facility is expected to
be fully operational by the last quarter of 2013
and will significantly improve the efficiency of
air cargo operations in Hong Kong.
• We continue to manage capacity in line
with passenger and cargo demand, while
endeavouring to keep our network intact.
• In the first half of 2013, we reduced our
passenger capacity by 4.8% compared to the
same period last year. This was a result of
frequency reductions introduced in 2012 in
order to save costs.
• Cargo capacity for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair
in the first six months of 2013 was down by
1.8% compared to the same period in 2012. We
reduced our freighter schedule and cancelled
flights on an ad hoc basis in response to weak
air cargo markets.
• All of the long-haul passenger frequencies that
were cancelled as part of 2012’s cost reductions
are restored by September 2013. We restored
flights to Los Angeles (to three times daily from
June) and Toronto (to 10 flights per week from
March). We intend to restore flights to New York
to four times daily from September.
• We introduced a fifth daily frequency to London
in June.
• We improved our Mumbai service from March
by changing three of the flights that went via
Bangkok to non-stop flights. There are now 10
non-stop flights a week to Mumbai.
• Cathay Pacific has added five more flights a
week to Bangkok, making a total of 47 flights a
week from July.
• We are committed to increasing flights to
and from Mainland China (primarily through
Dragonair), by adding new destinations and
more frequencies where this is possible and
so improving connections through Hong Kong.
Currently, we operate approaching 400 flights to
22 Mainland China destinations every week. We
introduced two new Mainland destinations in
the first half of 2013, Wenzhou and Zhengzhou,
and added three flights a week on the Wuhan
route (making a total of 10 flights a week).