Cathay Pacific Airways announced cost-saving measures - unpaid leave, a cut in capacity and a freeze on headcount - to cope with high oil prices, which it predicted would take a heavy toll on its business.
The high fuel prices and weakening demand in the passenger and cargo segments have been weighing on the airline's performance.
'Those pressures have left us no choice but to report that Cathay's financial results for the first half will be disappointing,' chief executive John Slosar said at a news conference yesterday.
The last time Cathay used the word 'disappointing' to describe its performance was in 2008, when reporting a net loss of HK$8.56 billion after betting on the wrong side of futures contracts on oil prices.
Slosar did not say whether this year's results would be worse or better than those for 2008.
From June to December, all cabin crew in Cathay will be offered the chance to take unpaid leave.
The carrier will cut capacity on long-haul flights, as they are more vulnerable to high fuel costs. Instead, it will deploy long-haul aircraft such as the Boeing 777 on routes to the mainland, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, as the demand for flights to regional destinations remains strong.
