Cathay Pacific has confirmed an increase in Australian services following a reduction in flights to North America. Effective 26 October, Perth will have a daily service with the addition of two additional flights a week, while Brisbane will move to 10 flights a week and Sydney, currently with 25 flights per week, will offer four flights each day.
The increases are triggered by a new round of capacity redeployment to help offset the impact of high fuel prices on the airline. The move includes reducing the number of the flights to North America by 10, adding the flights to Australia and upgrading to a bigger aircraft for 14 European flights each week. Overall, the changes result in no difference to planned capacity at the airline.
Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler said: "The extent of the impact fuel prices are having on our business was underlined when we announced a loss of HK$663 million in our interim results last week.
We have to maximise our earnings during this difficult period, which is why we are moving our capacity. However, while we are reducing services on some routes, we will continue to maintain the integrity of our network, reshaping it where necessary to ensure we fly aircraft to where we can cover our costs and also make some money."