Cathay Pacific Airways is losing its decades-old membership of Hong Kong’s benchmark equity gauge as the carrier struggles to revive earnings. The airline, in which Qatar Airways just acquired a stake, will be dropped along with Kunlun Energy as part of Hang Seng Indexes' quarterly review. The deletion is the latest blow for Cathay Pacific after it was removed from MSCI’s Hong Kong index in May. The airline has lost almost half its market valuation in the past 7 years as the carrier battled rising competition from Chinese rivals as well as suffering ill-judged fuel hedges. Rupert Hogg, who took over as CE this year, has been seeking to cut costs after the airline posted its biggest half-yearly loss in at least 2 decades. <br/>
oneworld
Finnair has again stepped up its 2017 full-year operating profit outlook to over E155m (US$180m) - nearly triple the E55m figure it posted in 2016 - exceeding the top end of its most recent E135m-155m guidance. The carrier originally expected to deliver a E110m operating profit in 2017, doubling its 2016 performance, but this was upgraded to the E135m-155m range in September. However, Finnair said Friday that passenger and cargo traffic sales have developed better than forecasted. This triggered the latest outlook revision. The airline reiterated its prior commitment to hitting 9% capacity growth across the full year, but said revenue would grow slightly faster than capacity. Finnair previously said revenue would grow in line with capacity. <br/>