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Exclusive | Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways to cut 90 per cent of mainland China services
- Sources say passenger numbers have collapsed by 50 per cent in recent days
- Airline will reduce overall flight capacity by about 30 per cent, says CEO
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Cathay Pacific Airways is to cut 90 per cent of its services to mainland China for two months as it combats the fallout from the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Hong Kong’s battered flagship airline will reduce overall flight capacity by about 30 per cent, its chief executive Augustus Tang Kin-wing said on Tuesday.
The carrier, one of Asia’s premium airlines and one of the biggest corporate victims of several months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, has seen passenger numbers collapse by 50 per cent in recent days, sources said, citing comments from a briefing on Monday led by Mark Hoey, the airline’s general manager of operations.
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The contagion, which started in Wuhan, capital of mainland China’s Hubei province, has played havoc with air travel, with travellers cancelling trips to affected destinations and border restrictions around the world on people who have recently visited mainland China. It has infected more than 20,000 people in mainland China, and killed more than 400. On Tuesday it claimed its first victim in Hong Kong.
Tang said in a company memo that the outbreak’s impact on its business had been “very significant”.
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