Cathay Pacific Closes Ticketing Office

 31 August 2021

Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA) has announced that it is permanently closing it Manila and Cebu Ticketing Offices effective September 1, 2021 due to company restructuring program brought by Covid19 pandemic. The airline said all ticketing transactions and inquiries has been transferred to its Global Contact Centers based in Hong Kong, as most of its passengers book flights through its website www.cathaypacific.com, or through travel agents online. The official line forwarded was for it to offer safer and contactless experience for its customers. Affected employees were already given their walking papers, while the rest of the workers are contracted out. The airline clarified that it is still doing business in the country which it still did for 75 years. What was closed is the ticketing and not the business office. Cathay Pacific was founded in Manila in 1946.

Cathay Pacific To Fly Davao

17 December 2020

Cathay Pacific (CPA) has filed with the Civil Aviation Board (CAB) Permit to fly Hong Kong-Davao-Hong Kong beginning next year with A321 aircraft as it consolidate its operations with subsidiary Dragon Air.

 

PAL, CPA Ferries OFW Home

22 December 2017

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has announced that it would put on sale four hundred forty (440) more tickets for those left without a seat after Peya Travel, a company specializing in flights for domestic helpers, sold Cebu Pacific air tickets that were not guaranteed, leaving customers stranded.

The extra seats will be available for their Hong Kong to Manila flights on Friday and Saturday (December 22 and 23) as the airline send Boeing 777 to allow stranded Filipinos to fly home for Christmas and for flights returning on January 3 and 4 from Manila to Hong Kong.

Defrauded passengers have been told to head to Philippine Airline’s Tsim Sha Tsui ticket office in East Ocean Centre building to get their tickets. They will need to bring proof that they were affected by the scam to get the discount.

The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong has pegged the number of fraud victims to as many as 1,000 Overseas Filipino Workers who bought promo tickets for a return flight home for the duration of the holidays.

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved funding the cost of round trip travel of affected Filipinos through OWWA.

“Our kababayans in Hong Kong and other parts of the world have a very special place in President Duterte’s heart and it is just right that we make their Christmas wishes come true by doing what we can to bring them home,” DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

“Our hearts go out to our stranded countrymen. We hope this gesture will serve as a means to help a number of them come home to the Philippines in time for Christmas Day,” Philippine Airlines president and chief operating officer Jaime J. Bautista also said in a statement.

The airline said it will also upgrade A321 flights to A330 to accommodate more passengers coming home.

At the same time, Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA) has offered “distress fares” to affected OFWs for travel plans to the Philippines. The airline has offered discounted fares since Tuesday to fill any remaining seats.

It said it would add larger planes to make more seats available on its Manila route so more domestic helpers could make it home for Christmas.

Budget airline Cebu Pacific said it was reviewing its options to figure out how to make additional tickets available as all their flights are fully booked for the holidays. They however offered 50 complimentary return tickets for the affected Filipinos.

Meanwhile, TNG members, the cashless payments company popular with domestic helpers for remittances, will give away HK$500,000 to help those affected pay for new flights. Each helper will receive a maximum gift of HK$1,000 so that at least 500 people can benefit.

Most flights to the Philippines were reportedly sold out by the start of the week right before Christmas Day, prompting PAL and CPA to upgrade their planes to Manila to ferry distress workers who feared they would be unable to spend the festive period with their families.

CX Flies First A350 To MNL

June 2, 2016

Cathay Pacific has officially flown its first Airbus A350-900 flight to Manila yesterday after it was unveiled in a spectacular ceremony in Hong Kong where employees, media and distinguished guests were introduced to the newest member of Cathay Pacific’s fleet.

Cathay Pacific's A350-900XWB MSN29 (B-LRA) made inaugural service to Manila flying CX907/906 in a historical fashion, following its long tradition to the country, and also making the first A350 service to land in the Philippines.

The A350 aircraft arrived in Hong Kong International Airport from Toulouse, France on Sunday, 29 May. It is the first of 48 A350s scheduled to be delivered to the airline.

MNL First A350 Destination For CX

Pax Scramble to Grab CX900/901 Seats

8 February 2016

Cathay Pacific has announced that its first destination for the its brand new A350 will be its daily flight to Manila CX901/900.commencing 1 May 2016 to be followed by Taipei on its return flight.

CX will then extend its reach of A350 services to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh from July 1, and Singapore from July 3 impressing Business class seat supplied by Zodiac.

The first raft of regional services is expected to help crew and ground teams become familiar with the A350 in a working environment before the next-generation jetliner is heads onto long-distance international flights.

The airline is expected to received the first A350 variant on the last week of April before commencing flights to Manila.

Terminal 3 Welcomes CX

2 October 2014

Cathay Pacific finally moved to NAIA Terminal 3 Tuesday evening with CX913 as the first flight arriving 10:40pm. followed by CX905 arriving at midnight. The first flight at the new terminal was welcomed by a water cannon salute. Full story of transfer here. PPSG

Terminal 3 Is Done, Finally!

Clears Delta Airlines, KLM, Singapore Airlines, 
Emirates and Cathay Pacific transfer

31 July 2014

Delta Airlines will be the first airline to relocate in Terminal 3 today after the Transportation Department finally completed Terminal 3 project, 17 years after concession was awarded, amidst corruption scandal against its erstwhile benefactor Fraport AG of Germany.

DOTC said  Japan’s Takenaka Corp. would turn over the facility today making it 100 percent operational and later tonight Delta Airlines would be receiving its arriving passengers from the Terminal.

Terminal 3 had been operating at half its intended designed capacity since it opened six years ago catering mostly to LCC operators Cebu Pacific and PAL Express together with lone full service carrier ANA. 

Terminal 3 will now be able to welcome 3.5 million more passengers said Transport Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.

Abaya said the $US80 million completion work done by Takenaka can now be able to fully accommodate the relocation of five international carriers operating from Terminal 1, which also has to undergo extensive repair, retrofit, rehabilitation and upgrading works to meet future demands.

Other foreign carriers that will move to Terminal 3 are as follows:

1. Delta Airlines........................................................ July 31
2. KLM....................................................................... August 4
3. Emirates................................................................. August 15
4. Singapore Airlines................................................. September 1
5. Cathay Pacific........................................................ October 1

The transfer of the  five airlines is expected to reduce Terminal 1’s annual passenger capacity from the current 8 million down to its design capacity of 4.5 million. Terminal 3 handles 13 million passengers per annum.

Cathay Pacific Consolidates Middle East Network

As Philippine Carriers Dumped Capacity

7 February 2014

Cathay Pacific is consolidating its operations in the Middle East this year by reducing capacity between 10% and cutting services to Jeddah and Abu Dhabi prompted by capacity dumping of Philippine-based carriers to the gulf region and simultaneous expansion by Gulf carriers to the Philippines beginning fourth quarter of last year. 

Filipino migrant workers comprises majority of Cathay Pacific's traffic serving the Middle East-Philippines market, which lately has seen 70% increase in UAE - Philippines capacity as Philippine Carriers launched long-haul flights and Emirates and Etihad adding capacity by adding nearby Clark airport to its network.

Summer 2013
Route	Weekly Frequency	Segments per Frequency	Weekly Segments
Hong Kong-Abu Dhabi-Riyadh-Hong Kong	1	3	3
Hong Kong-Bahrain-Riyadh-Hong Kong	2	3	6
Hong Kong-Dubai-Hong Kong	7	2	14
Hong Kong-Dubai-Jeddah-Dubai-Hong Kong	7	4	28
Hong Kong-Riyadh-Abu Dhabi-Hong Kong	2	3	6
Hong Kong-Riyadh-Bahrain-Hong Kong	2	3	6
Total	21	n/a	63
Summer 2014
Route	Weekly Frequency	Segments per Frequency	Weekly Segments
Hong Kong-Dubai-Bahrain-Dubai-Hong Kong	7	4	28
Hong Kong-Riyadh-Hong Kong	5	2	10
Hong Kong-Dubai-Hong Kong	7	2	14
Total	19	n/a	52

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Cathay Pacific and OAG 

Cathay catered to the largest market between the Philippines and the Middle East capturing about 20% of Manila- Dubai traffic. The Manila-Dubai route comprised about one-fifth of all Philippines-Middle East passengers. The second-largest route was from Manila to Riyadh, home to millions of overseas Filipino workers.

The Saudi Arabia - Philippines market has likewise grown by over 60% last quarter due to the re-introduction of Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight to Dam mam,Riyadh, and by this year Jeddah. 

The second wave of Middle East expansion by PAL and its subsidiary PAL Express,  as well as low cost carrier Cebu Pacific to Qatar and Saudi Arabia is expected this summer season.

Philippine Airlines is expected to become the largest  Asian carrier between Asia and the Middle East by the end of 2014 after it will add three more destinations before the end of the year.

At the start of the 2014 however, the pack is still headed by Garuda Indonesia with Cathay Pacific slipping to third place. Cathay was the second-largest Asian carrier between Asia and the Middle East at the start of 2013 before PAL built up a sizeable Middle East network.

Cathay pacific cuts capacity

.
Manila and Cebu frequency retained

Hong Kong - Cathay Pacific has announced that it will reduce its passenger capacity by 8% and overall cargo capacity by 11% from May 2009 in response to “deteriorating” business conditions. At the same time, it will introduce a four-tier, top down special leave scheme where staff will be asked to take unpaid leave varying from one to four weeks according to their seniority.

The airline said that it has already deferred delivery of two Boeing 777 aircraft to 2010 and is in talks with manufacturers on delaying other orders as the carrier seeks to conserve cash in the market downturn.

Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler says, “We anticipate an extremely challenging year in 2009 and a toxic combination of low fares, a big drop in premium travel, weak cargo loads, poor yields and a negative currency impact is making it more important than ever to preserve cash.”

He says the first quarter of 2009 saw a “marked deterioration” in Cathay Pacific’s business compared to the same period last year; turnover was down 22.4%. “We have no option but to take measures that will help us weather the current storm and maintain the long-term sustainability of the business.”

According to Tyler, there will be a reduction in flight frequencies or seat capacity to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Mumbai and Dubai. At the same time, additional flights will be routed to Denpasar, Sapporo, Bahrain and Riyadh. While flights to the Philippines and New Zealand will remain on status quo.

Dragonair, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, will also reduce its capacity by 13%. Flight services to Bengaluru, Busan, Sanya and Shanghai will be reduced, while services to Fukuoka, Dalian, Shenyang, Guilin and Xian will be suspended. The weekly freighter frequency will fall to 84 flights, down from 124 a week during 2008.

The company is also negotiating the sale of five aircraft and will park two more of its Boeing 747-400BCF freighters, taking the total to five, and wet-lease one BCF to subsidiary Air Hong Kong.

Under the special leave scheme, all of the 17,000 staff working for the airline in Hong Kong and overseas will be asked to take unpaid leave of one to four weeks, depending on seniority, over a 12-month period from May 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010.

Mr Tyler says the global economic meltdown is “hitting the aviation industry hard”, and that, unlike many of its competitors, Cathay Pacific gets no government financial support or subsidy. “Our staff are being asked to make sacrifices that will be needed to see the company through this violent storm. The pain will be shared from the top down.”

Tyler added that “We anticipate an extremely challenging year in 2009 and a toxic combination of low fares, a big drop in premium travel, weak cargo loads, poor yields and a negative currency impact is making it more important than ever to preserve cash…We have no option but to take measures that will help us weather the current storm and maintain the long-term sustainability of the business.”

The company is already offering low roundtrip business class fares to Asia to compete with low cost operators. Sample roundtrip fares including fees are $3,791, for JFK-Manila; $4,622, San Francisco-Hong Kong; and $5658, JFK to Hong Kong. The JFK to Manila fare however requires a seven-day advance purchase and that outbound travel must occur by June 30, 2009. The fare shown is valid for Monday through Thursday departures and available on Flights CX888/889 flights.

Cathay Pacific cuts fare to lure passengers

Plans no reduction on Manila capacity

March 16, 2009

Hong-Kong - Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest carrier, is cutting fares and selling economy-class tickets in pancake prices just to lure travelers as demand plunged the most in more than three years last month.

“The market has collapsed,” Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler said. “We can fill flights, but we’re filling them at very low fares, fares that are frankly not sustainable in the long run.”

Cathay has suffered a rapid decline among premium travelers as a result of the global financial crisis. Banks and insurers have cut more than 280,000 jobs since the crisis began. Rising unemployment in the U.S., Europe and Asia has also cut tourism demand.

The airline had its first loss in ten years as the financial crisis cut demand for flights to London and New York among business class and first class travelers. A drop in passengers also prompted Singapore Airlines Ltd., Asia’s most profitable carrier, to cut its fleet by 17 planes in the year beginning in April.

So far they have no problems with their routes to Manila and Cebu as they are always filled with economy class passengers with international connection from its hub in Hong-Kong.

Cathay Pacific is the biggest foreign airline operator in the country having carried more than 1.2 million passengers in 2008. It plans to delay arrival of new planes and intends to review its long haul routes.

The airline had 10 planes due for delivery this year, and had 46 aircraft on firm order in total, including 21 Boeing 777-300ERs at the end of last year.

Cathay Pacific celebrates oneworld 10th anniversary

First aircraft in alliance livery flown to Cebu

March 15, 2009

Cebu - The first Cathay Pacific aircraft to carry the Oneworld livery, took its first commercial flight to and from Cebu on March 11 without much funfare and has visited the central Philippine city every other day since.

The Airbus A340-300, arrived back in Hong Kong on 10 March after being painted at the Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Company facility. The aircraft will be subsequently deployed on various long-haul routes. Cathay Pacific’s remaining two oneworld aircraft, an Airbus A330-300 and a Boeing 777-300ER, will fly in their new colors in the second half of the year.

A striking new livery is going onto three Cathay Pacific aircraft to mark a significant milestone the Oneworld alliance. To highlight their ongoing commitment, the alliance’s 10 full member airlines will each put a standardized livery on a proportion of the aircraft in their fleet.

The new Oneworld aircraft livery features the alliance’s name prominently on the front section of the fuselage, in letters almost two metres high, with the oneworld logo alongside. The whole fuselage is painted white. The Cathay Pacific name is placed in fixed position in the livery, below the oneworld name, while the tailfin remains in Cathay Pacific colours as for the rest of the fleet.

Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said: “Being a member of the alliance has helped Cathay Pacific extend our reach into new markets, offer an enhanced service to our frequent travellers and generate benefits from being in partnership with some of the world’s finest airlines. Looking ahead, our relationship with oneworld will continue to be an integral part of our strategy for future growth and development over the next 10 years and beyond.”

The airline was one of the five original founder members of Oneworld when the alliance came into being on 1 February 1999. oneworld now brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business with 10 full members and around 20 affiliates serving almost 700 airports in nearly 150 countries.