Cathay Pacific Airways and Air Hong Kong today jointly announced plans to restructure operations in order to maximise the efficiency of their cargo services and enable Air Hong Kong to focus on serving the Asia region.
Air Hong Kong will from 1 July 2002 stop serving Brussels, Manchester and Dubai and continue to serve Osaka and Seoul.
Certain resources will be re-deployed between the two companies, but this will not result in any forced redundancies in Hong Kong. A number of Air Hong Kong staff in Hong Kong will be offered the choice of continuing to work with Cathay Pacific.
Air Hong Kong currently operates three Boeing 747-200 freighters leased from Cathay Pacific. Two of those aircraft will be returned to resume operations with Cathay Pacific.
Cathay Pacific currently has four B747-200 and five B747-400 freighters in its fleet, plus 66 passenger aircraft that also ship cargo in belly holds.
Cathay Pacific, subject to government regulatory approval, also intends to add Manchester and Brussels to its cargo destinations. The airline already serves Dubai.
Air Hong Kong Chief Operating Officer David Saechiu said: "This is a positive step for Air Hong Kong and enables us to focus our efforts on taking advantage of future opportunities within the region. The integration of our long-haul cargo operations within Cathay Pacific's world-wide network will generate greater economies of scale within the group and offer greater efficiency and flexibility to our customers."
Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Kenny Tang said: "The air cargo market is very competitive and it is always our objective to increase company efficiency. Increasing capacity in Cathay Pacific's cargo fleet will help position the airline to take advantage of an upturn in business and better serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and North America. This move also underlines Cathay Pacific's confidence that Hong Kong will continue to be the region's leading aviation hub."
Air Hong Kong is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific.
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