Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific insists on prudent spending as lawmakers grill airline over holiday flight cancellations, lack of passenger perks

Cathay CEO Ronald Lam stops short of offering any perks and discounts for airline services as he speaks before Legco’s economic development panel

Lawmakers grill Lam and his team over airline’s recent performance, touching on cancellation of numerous flights amid holiday seasons

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A Cathay Pacific flight parks at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 9:49am, 22 Mar 2024Updated: 10:44am, 23 Mar 2024

Corrected [10:44am, 23 Mar, 2024]

[10:44am, 23 Mar, 2024]
This article has been updated to correct the title of Cathay's Erica Peng. She is the company's director for customer travel, not the general manager for planning.

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has said it must adhere to prudent spending despite last year’s hefty profits, declining to offer passengers perks such as discounts on tickets amid growing calls for the company to give back to the community.

The Legislative Council’s economic development panel grilled Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por and his team on Friday over the airline’s recent performance, touching on the cancellation of numerous flights during holiday seasons and what lawmakers called the airline’s “chaotic” management.

Legislators also tried to push the company to dish out offers given its HK$9.78 billion net profit last year. But Lam stopped short of offering any perks or discounts on its services in return for the government and taxpayers having propped up the airline during the pandemic.

The CEO noted the company lost HK$34 billion (US$4.3 billion) during the three years that Covid-19 crippled the travel industry.

“The best [way of returning the favour] is to restore our services as soon as possible and invest in the future,” he told lawmakers, pointing to the purchase of 70 planes for passenger flights and cargo. “In the future, we need to be prudent with our expenditure … We need to make investments to consolidate Hong Kong’s status as an aviation hub.”

Lam said Cathay’s profits would partly be used to repay the government, “which I know is taxpayers’ money”.