Cathay Pacific CEO sets course for return to long-term profit stability
Hopes high for repeat earnings performance of the 2000-10 period if the cargo business continues to recover and fuel costs remain low
Cathay Pacific Airways chief executive Ivan Chu Kwok-leung thinks his airline may have returned to a long-term period of steady profit delivery for shareholders, four years after the last decade-long run ended.
"I hope so," Chu told the South China Morning Post when asked if Cathay's performance was indicating a return to the 2000-10 period that was regarded by investors as a high-water mark of strong, steady profit delivery.
"If the fuel price environment is benign, if economic growth continues in this region - and we expect that to be the case - and the cargo business continues to recover, then surely [the 2010 high point] is something we can work towards."
Profit attributable to Cathay's shareholders was a record HK$14 billion in 2010, and while last year's HK$3.2 billion remains short of the then record HK$5 billion profit it started the 21st century with in 2000, it was up 20.2 per cent on 2013 despite Chu's characterisation of 2014 as "a very challenging year".
Cargo - a business in which Cathay is one of the world's biggest air carriers - will be crucial to the airline's ability to regain a stride that saw it hit three profit records and earn close to HK$40 billion for shareholders over the period.
Freight hit a low point in the first three months of last year and remained negative throughout the first half, despite steep falls already experienced in 2013.