What are your thoughts about the past year?
Well, Cathay Pacific’s 75th year was certainly historic and unprecedented. 2020 had, of course, also been extraordinary with the first impacts of the pandemic and the subsequent PPE boom, but even then it’s fair to say nothing really prepared us for 2021. It was a year characterised by uncertainties and operational challenges. Clearly the disruptions due to the Boeing 747 pilot quarantine issues back in Q1 and Q2 were very significant, and further reduced our freighter capacity. That was a very difficult period, because demand was increasing, but we couldn't fulfil it. This year has started in a similar vein.
What were the main challenges for Cathay Cargo last year?
They fall under two linked areas – the effects of the pandemic and restrictions, and the consequent tightening of the supply chain. In terms of COVID-19, we have had to factor in extra processes, such as contactless aircrew transfers and disinfecting regimes in aircraft and warehouses; meanwhile our pilots have faced ever-changing restrictions, which has created constant uncertainty around our schedule. We owe our cockpit crews a huge debt of gratitude for keeping things going across the airline by signing up to the closed-loop roster pattern for our freighter operations. On the passenger side, our pilots have also operated close to 8,000 cargo-only passenger flights.
What have been the latest developments at the start of this year?
Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to pose major challenges for our teams and our customers. COVID-19 itself has created so many uncertainties for our people everywhere. Different parts of the world had outbreaks at different times, and our teams have all been affected, either personally or by the difficulties of working through this period.
At the very end of 2021, the Hong Kong SAR Government introduced more stringent quarantine requirements for our air crew. We are fully supportive of the Hong Kong SAR Government’s efforts to keep COVID-19 infections in the community down and we also want to keep Hong Kong as connected as possible. We temporarily suspended our long-haul freighter and cargo-only passenger flights to allow us to rebuild a deliverable, albeit reduced, schedule to keep as much capacity as we were able for the start of the year. While we have a full regional service, we have had to reduce the frequency of our long-haul freighter flights, and we can only offer sincere apologies for the disruption this will cause our customers. We will look at all avenues to increase capacity, but they will depend on finding effective ways to roster our crews. We will keep you updated as the first quarter moves on.