Cathay burns cash again as Covid restrictions bite

Bloomberg

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd is once more burning through cash as Hong Kong’s spiraling Covid-19 outbreak reduces the airline’s flying to a trickle.
The carrier will go through between HK$1 billion ($128 million) and HK$1.5 billion every month “until conditions improve,” CEO Augustus Tang said. It’s a swift and bleak reversal for the city’s marquee airline. Tang said in his note that Cathay’s monthly operating cash burn was as high as HK$3 billion in the first half of 2020 — as the pandemic laid waste to global aviation. Flight bans and quarantine restrictions while Hong Kong fights Covid-19 have reduced Cathay’s passenger flying to 2% of pre-pandemic capacity, the airline said.
Cathay’s “available unrestricted liquidity” was HK$30.3 billion at end of 2021, Tang said.

Cathay staff spent equivalent of 200 years in quarantine in 2021

Bloomberg

Crew and staff of Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd spent more than 73,000 nights in quarantine hotels and the city’s Penny’s Bay Covid-19 isolation facility in 2021, the airline said on Wednesday.
That adds up to the equivalent of 200 years. Aircrew spent more than 62,000 nights in quarantine hotels, while another 1,000 staff — from pilots to head office teams — were put into Penny’s Bay for over 11,000 nights.
Cathay crew took more than 230,000 Covid-19 tests in 2021, with only 16 positive cases, according to the airline.
The eye-catching numbers featured in the Hong Kong-based carrier’s annual results. Cathay said its net loss narrowed to HK$5.5 billion ($703 million) in 2021 from a record 21.6 billion the previous year, partly thanks to cost-cutting, including furloughs, early retirement programs, lower salaries and unpaid leave for staff.
The airline has become a symbol of the toll Hong Kong’s isolationist approach to the virus is exacting on the city, with borders effectively shut for the duration of the pandemic and lengthy quarantines the norm. Its staff have been blamed by authorities for bringing Covid into Hong Kong, and subject to frequently shifting protocols that made it difficult to continue running flights.