Cathay Pacific and Dragonair to cut capacity

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Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong) has announced a series of measures to reduce costs due to the drop in business due to the current economic downturn. The airline will reduce passenger capacity by eight percent and overall cargo capacity by 11 percent from May 2009. At the same time, the company will start a “Special Leave Scheme” under which staff will be asked to take unpaid leave varying from one to four weeks according to their seniority. Subsidiary Dragonair (Hong Kong) will also see a 13 percent reduction in capacity. Services to Dalian, Fukuoka, Guilin and Dalian will be suspended. Cathay Pacific is also negotiating the sale of five aircraft and will park two more Boeing 747-400BCF freighters (total now five). It will also wet lease one freighter to subsidiary Air Hong Kong (Hong Kong).