Cathay Pacific 2008 Annual Report Download - page 7

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Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Annual Report 2008 5
Award-winning products and services
Cathay Pacific
• The rollout of the airline’s innovative new cabin
design continues. All new aircraft arrived with these
cabins, either in three or two classes, and the
retrofit is progressing well. Currently 41 aircraft from
the medium- and long-haul fleet have the new
product, which has been generally well received by
passengers. The cabins are now to be found on
Australian, Middle East and Indian routes in addition
to long-haul services. All the retrofits are expected
to be completed by the end of 2009.
• We expanded our “StudioCX” inflight entertainment
offering on aircraft with the new cabins in July. We
now offer up to 100 movies, 350 TV programmes, 888
CDs, 22 radio channels and over 70 video games.
• We opened joint Cathay Pacific/Dragonair lounges in
Beijing in March and Shanghai in April.
• We opened new outport lounges in Melbourne,
Incheon and Penang during the year and also
refreshed our lounge in Manila.
• The Arrival, our new arrival lounge at Hong Kong
International Airport (“HKIA”), opened in October
and has been well received by passengers.
• We opened a new Cathay Pacific Ticketing Office in
Mumbai in September.
• The service skills of our staff were acknowledged at
the Customer Service Excellence Awards run by the
Hong Kong Association for Customer Service
Excellence. The airline won three gold awards
including one for counter service, in January 2008
and four honours, including two individual gold
awards, in January 2009.
2008 was a difficult year for the Cathay Pacific Group. While the business picture in the
first half of 2008 was generally positive, with continued high passenger traffic and
stronger than anticipated cargo demand, the growth in revenue was totally eroded by
the unprecedented rise in fuel costs. Fuel prices fell dramatically in the second half of
the year while demand, and revenues, fell as a result of the financial crisis and
economic downturn. Despite the challenges, both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair
continued with their various commitments to service and product quality, and offering
a quality travel experience for passengers.
• The excellence of our premium cabins was
recognised when we received the “Best Airline –
Business Class” honour from TTG Asia and the
“Best First Class Airline” honour from Skytrax. We
were also named runner-up in the Skytrax “Airline of
the Year” award.
• In September we were named as the “Most
Admired Company in Hong Kong” in the Asian Wall
Street Journal Top 200 Report.
Dragonair
• Joint Dragonair/Cathay Pacific lounges were opened
at Beijing Capital International Airport in March and
Shanghai Pudong International Airport in April – the
biggest Group lounges outside Hong Kong.
• Dragonair’s premium passengers can enjoy the
facilities in The Arrival, the new lounge opened by
the Cathay Pacific Group at HKIA.
• We opened new ticketing offices in Bengaluru,
Hangzhou, Kaohsiung and Taichung.
• Highlights from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
were shown on the majority of Dragonair’s aircraft –
the first time the airline provided regular updates
from a major sporting event.
• Dragonair and Cathay Pacific launched a joint
Mainland China reservations hotline to provide a
more convenient service to passengers.
• Dragonair was voted “Best Regional Airline: SE
Asia” in the annual World Airline Survey run by
Skytrax. This was the first time for the airline to win
this category.
• The carrier was also voted “Best Asian Airline” at
the 2008 annual Hurun Report Best of the Best
Awards.
2008 in Review