Cathay Pacific 2008 Annual Report Download - page 18

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16 Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Annual Report 2008
Review of Operations PASSENGER SERVICES
• The early part of the year saw a significant boost
in our services to India, with a total of 20 extra
flights being added. Delhi was turned into a
double-daily service and a new destination,
Chennai, was added. The latter has performed
reasonably well, though demand to and from India
as a whole lagged behind the capacity growth.
• Services to the Middle East were expanded in
October as a result of the fuel-price-led
redeployment of capacity. Dubai moved from a
double daily service to triple daily. Demand
remained strong throughout the year.
Dragonair
• Dragonair launched a new daily flight to Hanoi in
October and initial loads have been encouraging.
• A new flight to Manila, which commenced in
December, is providing more options for travellers
to and from the Philippines.
• Loads to Kathmandu have been reasonable in the
first year of operation, though the Dhaka service
has been hampered by visa restrictions.
• Flights to Phuket and Kota Kinabalu have enjoyed
good loads throughout the year.
• Dragonair entered the Indian market in July with a
new daily service to Bengaluru.
North Asia
Cathay Pacific
• Business to and from Taiwan was satisfactory
despite the impact of cross-straits charter flights.
These charter flights were introduced in July and
were significantly increased from December, to a
greater number of destinations. We are still
assessing the potential long-term impact on our
business.
• Korea flights performed satisfactorily, though the
depreciation of the Won did reduce yield.
• Japan flights performed well with some yield
improvement, helped by the strengthening of the
Yen in the last quarter.
• Cathay Pacific withdrew its passenger services to
Xiamen in September.
• Demand to Mainland China, and Beijing in
particular, was adversely affected by visa
restrictions imposed on international travellers
entering Mainland China during the Olympic
Games period.