HawaiiO

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia...ortage-4031046

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways will cut a dozen flights a day on average until the end of February, the airline said on Sunday (Jan 7), in a move to avoid cancellations as the busy Chinese New Year travel season approaches.

Cathay had to cancel some flights over the peak travel period for Christmas and the year end because its operations were stretched, it said in a statement.

"(Cathay) has consolidated on average six flight pairs per day for the rest of January and February, focusing on routes with multiple daily frequencies, where possible," it added.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the airline called off almost 70 flights during the Christmas and New Year holidays, citing "higher-than-expected pilot absences caused by seasonal illness".

As of 9pm on Sunday, at least 10 departing and nine arriving flights were cancelled, with the affected destinations including Taipei, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai.

oldchinahand

The dozen flights amount to 6 pairs which is not so many out of some 125 pairs daily although the SCMP tends to beat these things up as the have newspapers to sell.
BA for instance cancels routinely over 20 flight pairs a day (about 3.3% of its schedule) and it's not even mentioned. All major airlines cancel flights and over 100 pairs cancelled by US majors today.

boybi

How does cancelling flights in the next few weeks help the CNY travel season?

dkc192

By allowing affected travelers to make new plans, if needed, several days or weeks out, instead of having them scramble around on the day of departure.

moondog

Presumably flights to/from places where people celebrate Chinese New Year are the last ones they'd want to axe during the holiday period and surrounding weeks, no?

In any event, attempting to spin these cancellations as a positive thing for customers is quite a bold move. But, as @oldchinahand suggests, SCMP appears to be somewhat of a catalyst for the spin.

Xiaotung

Yep, our DXB flight 6 days out has just been cancelled and they put us on a dreadful EK 77W and the only seats left are the middle of the middle seats.

US HK UK flyer

Hey at least they don't have any 737 MAX to ground...United canceled I think 270 flights.

NZflyer777

yes and this is what CX used to get busines that BA and United could not.

US HK UK flyer

My hope is it encourages more airlines to come to HK to compete. Clearly a lot of demand Cathay can't meet right now.

Of course, that depends on whether the HK ground crew shortage has been meaningfully sorted out...

JordanWalker

Workable hours for crew members.

Carfield

My KIX-HKG flight CX 595 on February 27 was cancelled last night.
I was rebooked to CX 503 departing at 10am, since that was the only flight providing a legal connection to the Christchurch flight.

Rebooking options online is very limited.

Carfield

lamach22888

My NRT-HKG CX527 got cancelled and rebooked to CX501 which means a much earlier departure to the airport than planned.

I tried to get them to book on flights from HND instead but they aren’t budging. Any success from others on rebooking on partner airlines? Trying for JL92 specifically.

WheelsATC

because everything around CX in HK is highly politicised so the papers make a big deal out of it

percysmith

More than six pairs being cancelled per day:

國泰周二再取消多班來往香港航班 工會：國泰疫情期間大幅裁員種下禍根
http://news.now.com/home/local/player?newsId=545665

dkc192

JL92 is HND-GMP. If you're trying to switch a NRT-HKG booking to a HND-GMP booking, I'm not surprised they aren't budging. It might take a little (firm but polite) pushing from your end, but they should be willing to rebook you on HND-HKG on CX or JL.