Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific to set up task force over extensive flight cancellations, as airline apologises and says worst passed for latest cuts
- Chief operations and service delivery officer Alex McGowan says task force will ‘identify and resolve the underlying issues’ behind flight cancellations
- Airline cut almost 70 flights during the Christmas and New Year holidays, and has been cancelling upwards of 20 flights in recent days ahead of Lunar New Year
The airline on Wednesday admitted it had underestimated the number of pilots needed to cover the Christmas and New Year holidays, and said the disruption caused was far below the standards expected by its passengers.
“I would like to extend a sincere apology to our customers affected by recent travel disruptions,” said Alex McGowan, Cathay’s chief operations and service delivery officer. “Over the Christmas and New Year period, we underestimated the number of reserve pilots we would need.
“Our people worked round the clock to minimise the impact, and in particular I would like to thank our crew operations team, airport team and pilots for their enormous efforts during this period.”
The airline apologised a day after the city’s leader expressed grave concerns over the latest round of short-notice flight cuts that Cathay said were in preparation for the Lunar New Year holiday. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told the airline to tackle its capacity problems “very quickly and effectively”.