Hong Kong government hits out at Cathay Pacific over nearly 800 flight cancellations in 2 months, but carrier vows smooth Easter service

The Civil Aviation Department submitted a paper to the Legislative Council on Monday showing that 786 passenger flights were cancelled between December 28 last year and February 29. They amounted to about 11 out of 250 flights being scrapped on average per day, or 4 per cent of total operations.

The department said the carrier’s planning team lacked the experience and digital capabilities to sufficiently forecast required crew resources, after scrutinising a report submitted by Cathay Pacific over the flight disruptions.

“Coordination among departments responsible for service planning and crew availability was also inadequate,” the paper said. “The incident gives rise to concern about the capacity resumption of [Cathay] and, further to that, the recovery of Hong Kong International Airport.”

Cathay CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por said last week that the company had pushed back its timeline for restoring passenger flight capacity to pre-pandemic levels from the end of 2024 to the first quarter of next year.

Cancellations over Christmas and Lunar New Year drew the ire of travellers who encountered difficulties in rebooking flights, while pilots lamented what they called messy roster arrangements.

In its report to the department, Cathay said the cancellations were caused by several factors, including internal planning issues and underestimation of pilot reserve levels. But pilot roster planning was the “root cause”, it said.

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Cathay pointed to an “unanticipated and sustained increase” in pilot absences due to seasonal illness and the high number of flights over the 2023 holiday season, adding the shortfall spilled over into the New Year and caused a second round of cancellations.

Many pilots were also set to exceed the maximum 900 flying hour-limit for 12 months and could not cover for their absent colleagues, the airline said.

While it was “fully aware” of hour cap to protect against fatigue, Cathay said the limit had not been a “significant impediment to the operation” and thus, “was not tracked to the level of detail that has now become necessary”.

The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association earlier attributed the problem to a management decision to cut jobs globally amid the pandemic. Offering cost-cutting contracts that slashed pilot pay by about 40 per cent to remaining employees also prompted more to resign.

Cathay said in the report that it suspended training to free up cockpit crew and ensured that the level of reserve pilots for the Lunar New Year period exceeded the normal by a large margin.

The airline also mapped the 900-hour limit into crew planning processes and added buffers to the rostering system to reduce the number of pilots hitting the maximum flying hours.

The department noted that the airline did not cancel any flights during the Lunar New Year peak travel period.

“[Cathay] has assured that there will be no similar flight cancellations during the coming Easter travel peak,” the department said.

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“In fact, [Cathay] has further reassured the government and the public that it will make its best endeavours to ensure there will be no similar flight cancellation in the future.”

Cathay chief operations and service delivery officer Alex McGowan apologised to customers, while city leader John Lee Ka-chiu called on the airline to set up a task force to investigate the matter.

Affected routes included Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Seoul, Bangkok and Vancouver.

Legco’s panel on economic development is expected to further discuss the matter on Friday.