Cathay Pacific's traffic figures for October continued their downward trend for the fourth straight month, as the carrier flagged "significant pressure" on its overall passenger yield. As widespread unrest continues to rock the territory, the airline has also trimmed year-end capacity. From August to October, flight capacity has been cut by 2-4%. In November and December, capacity will be reduced even further, by 6-7% compared with original schedules. Passenger load factor last month decreased 4 points year-on-year to 77.6%, but that figure is still marginally better than September's load factor of 73.6%. Cathay and its subsidiary Cathay Dragon carried around 2.7m passengers, a 7.1% decrease year-on-year. It was, however, a better showing than September's figure of 2.4m. <br/>
oneworld
Qatar Airways has dropped Pratt & Whitney from its order for Airbus A320neo-family jets, switching instead to the rival CFM International Leap-1A. The carrier had originally been scheduled as the launch operator for the A320neo family, having ordered 50. But it became engulfed in a row over the reliability of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engine, and the launch operator position was ultimately taken by Lufthansa. Qatar started cancelling individual A320neo deliveries as the engine dispute persisted. It subsequently threatened to swap powerplants to CFM and, 2 years ago, scrapped the entire A320neo order in favour of a revised deal for 50 of the larger A321neo. The airline has confirmed that it is switching the engine selection, choosing the Leap-1A for all 50 jets in a deal it values at US$4b. <br/>
Capacity cuts to international markets and improved performance in Brazil helped push LATAM Airlines Group's profit up 50% year-over-year in Q3 to US$86.3m. The profits follow a troubling first half of 2019 for LATAM. The airline racked up nearly $123m in losses during the first 6 months of the year. "This improvement reflects a proactive capacity management across our international markets and healthy domestic demands," says LATAM CFO Ramiro Alfonsin, during the company's earnings call Wednesday. "Capacity adjustments in our international markets are bearings results." The results come despite notable challenges in several countries in which LATAM operates, including Argentina and LATAM's home country of Chile. Social unrest in Chile will likely cost the airline company $30m in Q4, it predicts. <br/>