Cathay says training, jet bottleneck slowing Covid recovery

Bloomberg

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd expects to fly one-third of its pre-Covid capacity by the end of the year, up from 25% previously projected as Hong Kong gradually loosens restrictions on travel, including lengthy mandatory quarantine stays.
The recovery will take time as Hong Kong’s main airline returns its fleet to service and trains staff after operating at as little as 2% of 2019 capacity for much of the pandemic.
“We will continue to add back more flights as quickly as is feasible to strengthen the network connectivity of the Hong Kong aviation hub, this will still take time as we
build operational readiness and undertake a substantial amount of training and aircraft reactivation,” Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said in a statement.
“This, combined with other operational complexities, means that capacity can only be increased gradually over a period of several months,” he said.
Cathay carried 253,907 passengers in August, up about 88% from the same month last year, but still less than 10% of that in August 2019. Capacity measured in available seat kilometers rose 83% from last year, but was about 17% of August 2019 levels.
Rival Singapore Airlines Ltd operated at 71% of pre-Covid capacity last month, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Cathay carried 104,851 tonnes of cargo last month, down 16% from a year earlier.
The Hong Kong carrier continues to lead its peers as the best-performing stock on the Bloomberg World Airline Index, rising 34% this year, comfortably ahead of second-placed Japan Airlines Co with a 22% gain. Singapore Airlines is up 6.2% in 2022.