Cathay Pacific to revamp fuel hedges, workforce

Cathay Pacific Airways plans to shorten its fuel-hedging program and revamp its workforce as part of a new business strategy to halt a slide in earnings. The carrier "won't hedge as far forward as we have in the past" and will "rethink its workforce," COO Rupert Hogg said Monday. The airline plans to reassign employees from some outdated roles to new jobs that are better aligned with a "digital focus" while "never saying never" to redundancies, Hogg said. Cathay Pacific is set to unveil a new strategy Wednesday following a "critical review" of its business as mounting competition from Chinese and Middle Eastern carriers caused the airline in October to scrap its second-half outlook. CE Ivan Chu, who took the helm in March 2014, had said the carrier planned to continue with its fuel hedges. <br/>