Marco Polo

Hong Kong?s Cathay Pacific banks on cargo to bring in the cash as 2017 losses forecast at US$357 million | South China Morning Post

Isochronous

One wonders how much spending/depreciation/losses were brought forward to make 2017 look bad (and to also be able to blame things on the failed Ivan Chu) so there can then be a turnaround in 2018 which makes Rupert look good.

percysmith

Average first two years' performance then.

But we'll be looking at yield first and foremost, I suppose. Harder to fudge that.

Kachjc

yield does not matter if everyone's yield is down...yield will pop right back up once the mainland impostor collapses on its debt
the airline itself is profitable excluding the errors on fuel and forward losses

also for someone that is obsessed about LCC's and striving to be treated like cattle , you would want yield to fall...

percysmith

Why wouldn't I want yields to fall?

Second time you've made a point that's illogical https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post29392522

brunos

An article full of common sense:
Cathay Pacific is a case study in how most companies fail in the long run ? if they don?t change | South China Morning Post

Arbeysix

Not sure I agree with you. The reason that the "paradox" referred to in the article exists is that like many markets, there is not one homogenous market driven solely by price but rather a number of considerations. Yes, low cost and other competition is posing enormous challenges (witness declining yields) however as the article implicitly admits there are many of us willing to pay a premium for different reasons whether it be commitment to safety, route network, hard and soft product etc etc. I believe CX is in the process of refining where in the market it wants to "play" and let us all hope it is not at the commoditized end of the market (early evidence, thankfully, is that this is not the case).

Cathay Dragon 666

Cathay is the victim of their own failures and the fierce competition from mainland airlines. Own failures such as fuel hedges that make no sense, not aggressively going after the China market (could be limited by Beijing so not really their fault), offended and pushed out their most loyal fliers that were willing to pay premium prices with them to keep status, branding itself as luxury airline but cuts services, etc. However, Cathay is also in a tough spot when mainland airlines are selling all cabins are ridiculously low prices.

One would think Cathay wants to secure their home turf, Hong Kong, by offering competitive prices in and out of Hong Kong. But rather, in reality, if departure/destination is Hong Kong it is usually the most expensive. Some people claimed this is because Cathay has strong yields for Hong Kong traffic so there's no pressure to deflate prices. However, on the last 3 business trips I fly with Cathay in and out of Hong Kong, the air craft is pretty empty, a quick glare back to the Y class shows it to be virtually deserted. It could be the exception, and the 6 days I was traveling were happen to be low-yield days, but I don't ever remember seeing a situation like this in my 30 years of flying with Cathay.

Really to win people back is simple: increase product and service quality, reasonable fares, and attractive FFP. But again and again airlines decided to go price war and the industry seems to be like a race to LCC.

percysmith

Cathay Pacific losses snowball to HK$1.25 billion, first back-to-back loss in 71-year history

Cathay Pacific racks up first back-to-back loss in 71-year history, at HK$1.25 billion | South China Morning Post

christep

Well yes, but with a $6.377bn loss on fuel hedging, so that would be a $5.12bn profit but for that monumental cock-up.

percysmith

Passenger load still roughly constant-0.1% but yield down -3.1%

http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/list...0180314155.pdf

Aus106080

Not bad for the performance.
They have profit for the 2nd half.

percysmith

The way to achieve the former/improve the latter is to stop being a slot hog and cut back? VA's complaining about HKG slot unavailability https://www.ausbt.com.au/virgin-aust...edule-shake-up

1010101

They deserve to struggle imo. Heavily government supported competitors in the mainland and the Middle East required a different approach, and instead CX tried their hardest to just do the same thing. They tried to push their own government influences to protect sky high ex-HKG fares, at the expense of focus elsewhere, and its bitten them. It will be a tough turnaround but i think they still have enough reputation and product quality to do it.

Kachjc

no the way to achieve this is to slot hog

anyone who thinks more competition = higher profits is retarded
especially if the slots are going to airlines that do not have to post a profit on that route