Cathay Pacific cuts 8,500 jobs, shuts regional airline

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways said Wednesday it would cut 8,500 jobs and shut a regional airline as it grapples with the plunge in air travel due to the pandemic.

About 5,300 Hong Kong-based employees will be made redundant, and another 600 based outside of the city would also likely be affected by the cuts.

The remaining 2,600 positions which are currently unfilled will also be cut.

The slash in jobs represents about 24% of the company's headcount, Cathay Pacific said in a statement.

The company will also shut down Cathay Dragon, its regional airline unit, with operations ceasing from Wednesday.

It will seek regulatory approval for most of the routes to be operated by Cathay Pacific and its budget airlines subsidiary HK Express.

The restructuring is aimed at reducing Cathay Pacific's cash burn to 500 million Hong Kong dollars (64.5 million US dollars) a month, from about 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars (193.5 million US dollars) to 2 billion Hong Kong (258 million US dollars) dollars currently, Cathay Pacific CEO Augustus Tang said in a statement.

"The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the Group to survive," Tang said.

"We have to do this to protect as many jobs as possible, and meet our responsibilities to the Hong Kong aviation hub and our customers."

The restructuring plan will cost about 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (283.8 million US dollars), the company said.

Executive pay cuts will also continue throughout 2021 and there will be no pay increments for 2021 nor bonuses for this year for all Hong Kong employees, Cathay Pacific said. Ground staff will also be offered a voluntary leave plan in the first half of next year.

In June, Cathay Pacific raised 39 billion Hong Kong dollars (5 billion US dollars) in a recapitalization plan that gave the city's government a stake of about 6% in the airline.

(Image Credit: AP)