Asia airline leaders cautious on short-term recovery

After a tough 2020, Asia-Pacific airline executives caution that challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic have yet to be left behind. Mandy Ng, CE of Hong Kong low-cost carrier HK Express, says that while the airline had to shut down for a period in 2020, work continued to integrate the carrier into the Cathay Pacific Group, which acquired it in 2019. “My team has been able to focus on transformation projects, which actually cover almost every single aspect of the business, from strategy planning to operations to customer service- basically everything,” she says. “It was a tough time and it is still tough time for us in Hong Kong without any domestic travel, but we have kept the team intact, kept the team focused on the future, and invested for the future.” Ng made the remarks during a panel discussion during the Aviation Festival Asia virtual event. She was joined on the panel by Sourav Sinha, chief information officer of IndiGo and Siew Shan Sim, chief financial officer of AirAsia Berhad. AirAsia’s Sim says that 2021 will remained subdued for the industry because regional vaccine rollouts are lagging those in countries such as the USA and United Kingdom. IndiGo’s Sinha stressed how unpredictable things are. In February, India’s domestic traffic was recovering strongly, but then the second wave of Covid-19 hit, hammering demand. Still, IndiGo is already back to 30-35% of pre-pandemic capacity, with loads improving.<br/>