Cathay Pacific carried just 37,815 passengers in November, down 98.6% from a year earlier, and warned that its second-half losses will be significantly worse than the HK$9.9b ($1.3b) hemorrhage in the first six months. Average passenger capacity in the second half is only likely to be 8.4% of pre-pandemic levels, compared with 34.3% in H1, the Hong Kong-based carrier said Wednesday. Restructuring and impairment costs will add to the pressure on earnings as demand remains elusive. “We are still not seeing significant demand for travel as we head toward the end of 2020 -- traditionally a strong travel season in the year,” Cathay’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said. Cathay’s passenger traffic has been down around 99% every month since April as Covid-19 and related travel restrictions decimated demand. November revenue passenger kilometers fell 97.9% from a year earlier, while passenger load factor was just 18.5%. The airline carried 116,853 tons of cargo and mail, down 34.3%, with a load factor of 77.7%. Lam said Cathay has introduced chartered freighter flights to Riyadh and a seasonal cargo service to Australia’s Hobart will start in mid-December for exports of Tasmanian produce to Asia. <br/>
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Finland is preparing to support national carrier Finnair with an unsecured hybrid loan of up to E400m, the company said Wednesday. The Finnish government said the COVID-19 pandemic’s second wave had led to a slower than expected recovery in air traffic, resulting in heavy losses for Finnair as it operates at around 10% of normal capacity. “The state is committed to acting as a responsible anchor owner for Finnair,” said Tytti Tuppurainen, the minister in charge of state ownership policies. “Finland’s geographic location is challenging and therefore we will not manage without functioning air connections.” Finland has kept some of Europe’s strictest travel restrictions in place throughout the pandemic.<br/>
BA will permanently axe 13 long-haul destinations from its network next summer, and will suspend flights to Sydney, Bangkok and San Jose until October. From the start of the summer season in late March, the UK carrier will no longer serve the US cities of Charleston and Pittsburgh, or Calgary in Canada. It will also drop Dammam in Saudi Arabia and Durban in South Africa, along with Kuala Lumpur, Osaka and Seoul in Asia Pacific. Abu Dhabi, Peruvian capital Lima and Muscat in Oman will also be dropped from its network at the end of March. BA will stop serving the Seychelles on 24 April, and flights to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will end, although a “short ad hoc” service will be operated over the Hajj period in July, says BA. The carrier plans to suspend flights to Bangkok and Sydney from the end of March until 30 October, while service to San Jose will be suspended between 17 April and the end of October.<br/>
Fiji Airways has begun relocating its fleet ahead of Cyclone Yasa, which was upgraded to a category 5 storm on Wednesday morning and is on track to make a direct hit on Fiji later this week. Some of the planes are on their way to New Zealand. A number of Fiji Airways aircraft took off from Nadi enroute for Sydney on Wednesday afternoon, including the airline's flagship Airbus A350s. "All Fiji Airways jet aircraft - Airbus A350s Airbus A330s and Boeing 737s - aircraft will either operate their scheduled freight or repatriation services to Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, or be ferried to Sydney or Auckland over the next two days," the airline said. "These aircraft will remain at those ports until weather conditions in Fiji allow for their safe return."<br/>