| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 11th June 2003 |
Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that it will soon restore around 170 flights per week to destinations across its network. From July the airline will operate 71 per cent of its full schedule in anticipation of an expected rise in demand over the summer.
At the peak of the SARS outbreak the schedule was cut back by 45 per cent due to a steep drop in passenger numbers, though stringent efforts were made to retain schedule integrity. Total weekly flights operated by Cathay Pacific in July will number almost 700, up from around 530 in April.
By next month a number of flights will be added back to the following destinations: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Tokyo, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Denpasar, Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok, Bahrain, Dubai, Karachi, Johannesburg, Rome, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and London.
A total of 13 parked aircraft will be brought back into service to correspond with the increased number of flights. Nine aircraft will remain parked.
Cathay Pacific's Director Corporate Planning Augustus Tang said: "We are restoring a number of flights as we have seen some improvement in forward bookings and we also anticipate a rise in demand for travel in the summer months. Restoring these flights will ensure we can meet the needs of the travelling public and at the same time support government and travel industry initiatives to draw travellers back to Hong Kong."
Mr Tang said the airline has seen some increase in passenger traffic since the World Health Organisation lifted its Hong Kong travel advisory at the end of May. "However, we are still carrying only approximately one-third the number of passengers we were carrying at the same time last year. Yields are very low and we are still a long way from our break-even point. A general recovery in inbound traffic will take a long time."
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