Airlines across the globe have cancelled flights, postponed or adjusted their services in response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by May James / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Last month, Cathay Pacific announced a corporate restructuring in response to the continued impact of the coronavirus on the aviation market. The airline closed down Cathay Dragon (21 October) and will reduce workforce and passenger capacity. More details have now surfaced as the following international routes will be removed from the airline’s schedule, Danny Lee from South China Morning Post learned from an internal source, referring the decision as permanent.
The airline will cut destinations in the United States (Washington DC, New York Newark and Seattle), Maldives, Ireland (Dublin), United Kingdom (London Gatwick) and Belgium (Brussels) as all these routes would be loss-making.
Cathay Pacific is still flying to London Heathrow, and to New York JFK, which are the two busiest airports in those cities.
“As we have previously announced, we expect to operate well under 25 per cent of 2019 passenger capacity in the first half of 2021 and below 50 per cent for the entire year,” a Cathay spokeswoman said to South China Morning Post.