Cathay Pacific Suffers Big Loss..Will HKG Be Enough to save them?

Despite incurring wider losses of 6.55 billion Hong Kong dollars ($834.4 million US dollars) in 2022 compared to the prior year, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. stated that it was prepared to recover as Hong Kong began to welcome international travelers again.



Compared with the numbers in 2021, there is an 18.5% increase in losses. It was largely due to the strict entry restrictions imposed on the city in the first half of 2022.







Cathay Pacific experienced a 12% surge in revenue, which totaled 51 billion Hong Kong dollars ($6.5 billion US dollars). Additionally, the company posted an operating profit of 3.55 billion Hong Kong dollars ($452 million US dollars) in 2022, the first time since 2019, due to the loosening of quarantine requirements in Hong Kong during the second half of the year.



At a news conference on Wednesday, Cathay Pacific Chairman Patrick Healy attributed the company's significant loss in 2022 to its associates, particularly Air China, whose losses amounted to as much as 39.5 billion yuan ($5.7 billion). This is more than double the losses it incurred in the previous year and reflects the ongoing effects of the pandemic on its mainland investments.
Healy further revealed that Cathay expects to reach 70% of its pre-pandemic flight capacity by the end of 2023 and to return to the same level by 2024.