patrickw

I believe what he meant is that CX has been losing $2.5 – $3B cash a month since February. With 20B cash in hand as at end of 2019, they are now in a position requiring cash injection or they will face liquidity issue very soon and hence the deal with hk gov and right issue.

cx4ever

Yes... if they lose $2.75B cash each month since February they should have lost way more than $4.5B cash from Jan-Apr.

I just remembered that the $4.5B was only for CX + KA. Maybe + UO and other subsidiaries and it's much much worse? Hard to believe but I presume possible.

Reply1984

I guess it is about refunds?

Eagle2000

I would assume so as Cash and Profit are two different animals...

Redfish NA

(from CX press release) Mr Healy explained: “Despite all these measures, the collapse in passenger revenue to only around 1% of prior year levels has meant that we have been losing cash at a rate of approximately HK$2.5 billion to HK$3 billion per month since February, and the future remains highly uncertain.

They didn't define "losing cash" here, which can be different from operating cash flow and profit defined by accounting rules. A company could "lose cash" when it just pays back debts or buys assets. Don't know how refund fits into the equation. CX has contractual liabilities to buy assets such as aircraft. They may not be able to defer all of the contracted purchases. CX also need to pay back debts as they come due. Probably now it's very difficult for airlines to replace debts with new ones.

brunos

My guess is that CX could be losing much more than 3 billion in May and June. Most HK residents repatriated from Europe and US by early May. Traffic became less than February/March/April.
Some easy estimate can be gained from the annual accounts.
In 2019, monthly operating expenses were 8.58 billion (103/12) plus 0.25 financial charges. Even with some pay cuts and unpaid leave, the monthly total can hardly be below 6 billion. And expenses should be quite higher as fuel hedging took a beating with fuel prices very low and UO also brought a huge loss.

Pax revenue was a monthly 7.17 in 2019 and has become negligible (traffic was 0.4% of normal in April and probably even less in May) and even negative with all the refunds. Cargo revenue have dropped significantly. An optimistic revenue estimate is 1.2 billion (was 1.75 in 2019).

In summary, I would suspect some 5 billion monthly loss in May/June, both in terms of cash and accounting profit.

TomYoung

Buried in CX's website is the presentation to analysts on 9 June when, in the Q&A, the CFO, after laughing, said that at US$40/Bbl Brent CX was losing HK$ 250M/ month. Clearly despite being active and agile they did not close out their hedging position before the collapse of the oil price.

Perhaps the only other really surprising item to come out was that the Chief Customer and Commercial Officer said that of the 17 new aircraft to be delivered in 2020 some have already been delivered earlier this year. He did not say what has been delivered but I cannot identify any.

helvetic

Am ticketed next weekend in W on CX TPE-HKG. CX cancelled their flight that day and rebooked me one day earlier. Doesn't quite work for me, but not to worry as BR has a flight the same day. Asked to be rebooked onto that but they're refusing, saying they can't rebook on other airlines "because of Coronavirus."

I get that they're losing money and that this would be costly to them, but seriously? Not happy with this.

Also, booked in W (on BA miles) as it was the only COS with availability on my desired date, but would've booked J if I could have. Neither BR nor CI operate a W cabin — if I were able to get CX to rebook me on BR/CI would they put me in J or Y?

patrickw

My suggestion is that if you really need to travel on that day, go get yourself a ticket on whatever flight is operating and don't waste your time arguing with BA/CX.

You might stand a chance if they cancel your flight now for this weekend, ie tonight or tomorrow, which they might protect you to another airline and even that is not so easy nowadays for endorsing your ticket to another airline that is neither alliance nor codeshare partners. You can pretty much forget about it for an award ticket that is more than a week to go.

brunos

In the current environment, you would not find many airlines that would reroute you on an another airline in your situation: award from another airline and no other flight on an alliance partner.
Let's be practical. As suggested above, just get your avios refunded by BA and book a revenue ticket on BR or CI.

I guess that you are aware of entry restictions into HK.

bradders239

CX has seats on the lunchtime flight t HKG on Saturday 20th as my friends daughter has just booked it today.

helvetic

So do I after they cancelled my Sunday ticket and replaced it with that flight. 😡

sbs2716g

since you booked using avios, pls ask BA to rebook you on BR/CI. I don’t think BA is willing to do so. And CX can’t do anything also.

percysmith

BA has responsibility to facilitate rebooking as CX's ticketing agent.

Not same day may raise some traction, raise a MCOL since you can MCOL BA. But they're kind of broke right now.

brunos

I doubt that "not same day" would raise much traction in the current times where airlines do not fly daily to most destinations.
CX has not flown daily to TPE for a very long time.
Out of curiosity, when did you buy this ticket and when was the flight cancelled?