Cathay Pacific reported a net loss of HK$21.65b ($2.8b) for 2020, a period the carrier described as “the most challenging 12 months of its more than 70-year history” as the coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented disruption to global air travel. The outlook isn’t much better, according to the airline’s results statement Wednesday, in which Chairman Patrick Healy said “it is by no means clear how the pandemic and its impact with develop.” Cathay will persist with its cash preservation measures, including keeping executive pay cuts in place throughout this year. It has also asked employees to sign up for another special leave program in the first half of 2021, to which 80% have agreed. Available unrestricted liquidity at the end of the year stood at HK$28.6b, and Cathay also issued HK$6.74b in convertible bonds in January to secure more funds “in this difficult environment.” The airline expects to operate at well below 50% passenger capacity in 2021.<br/>
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LATAM Airlines Group, the region’s largest airline, on Tuesday reported a loss of $962.5m in Q4, hurt by a second wave of the pandemic which has hit Latin America particularly hard. LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection last May and is still going through a court-supervised reorganization in the United States. Overall in 2020, the airline lost $4.6b, compared with a pre-pandemic profit of $196m in 2019.<br/>
Qantas has said it will offset every passenger’s carbon emissions from its new ultra-long-haul direct flights. The “Project Sunrise” services will be the longest commercial flights in the world, clocking in at 18-20 hours, and flying nonstop between Sydney and Melbourne to key destinations including London, New York and Paris. Now, the airline has said it will be offsetting the new services’ emissions on every seat filled, in response to the “flight shame” movement in Europe, which encourages travellers to swap flying for alternative, lower-carbon forms of transport. “We've said we'll carbon offset every passenger on the aircraft because there’s a big push in Europe not to travel called flight-shaming, which is a big issue,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said. Speaking of previous Project Sunrise test flights, Joyce said that “the number one question from the European journalists was why would anyone do this with the carbon emissions we’re going to have on these flights”. In response, Qantas will be offsetting the emissions of every passenger through projects including rebuilding wetlands and replanting endangered rainforest at Queensland's Babinda Reef. <br/>