Jurors in a civil lawsuit decided Wednesday that American Airlines did not bear responsibility for an alleged sexual assault against a flight attendant by a celebrity chef who was hired by the airline as an independent contractor. The jury in state court in Fort Worth deliberated for parts of three days before concluding that a sexual assault occurred during a company trip to Germany in 2018, but that American was not involved. The chef, Mark Sargeant, has never been charged with a crime. He reached a confidential settlement with the flight attendant, Kimberly Goesling, according to Robert Miller, one of her lawyers. Goesling, who later retired after 30 years with Fort Worth, Texas-based American, sought $25.6m in damages from the airline during the trial, which lasted more than two weeks. American Airlines spokeswoman Lindsey Martin said, “The jury’s decision confirms that American does not tolerate inappropriate sexual conduct of any kind.” Miller said he will appeal the verdict. He said the judge excluded evidence about unwanted advances by Sargeant toward other female American Airlines employees before the alleged assault against Goesling.<br/>
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Cathay Pacific Airways expects cash burn to drop to less than HK$500m ($64m) a month within “the next few months” as Hong Kong gradually rolls back some of the world’s strictest, and longest lingering, Covid-19 curbs. “The recent adjustments to the government’s travel restrictions and quarantine requirements will help facilitate the gradual resumption of travel activities and the strengthening of network connectivity to and from the Hong Kong aviation hub,” the carrier said Wednesday. It noted that flight arrangements from early June will include daily flights to and from London Heathrow as well as a resumption or increase in passenger flights to the US, Australia, New Zealand and India. Cathay is wholly reliant on international travel considering it has no domestic market. Cathay, which at its annual general meeting earlier Wednesday warned Hong Kong is falling behind as the rest of the world reopens, posted traffic figures for April that are still well down on pre-Covid levels. The airline carried a total of 40,823 passengers last month, up 82.2% on April 2021 but 98.7% lower than April 2019. Still, the city is starting to ease travel curbs, lift flight bans and reduce lengthy quarantine stays that largely closed it off to the rest of the world for more than two years. “We will continue to look for opportunities to add back capacity, and rebuild our hub and network,” Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said. “April saw some positive developments for our travel business with improved demand across our network.”<br/>
Hong Kong is “falling behind” as the rest of the world reopens from the pandemic, Cathay Pacific Airways chairman Patrick Healy said. “As aviation hubs across the world begin to bring back capacity and stage a recovery, Hong Kong is obviously falling behind to a certain extent,” Healy said at the airline’s annual general meeting Wednesday. The city is starting to ease travel curbs, flight bans and lengthy quarantine stays that largely closed it to the rest of the world for more than two years, sparking frustration among businesses and the general public. Cathay has been operating at below 2% of passenger capacity through March, and Healy said there has been a “material impact” on profitability in the first months of 2022. Responding to IATA chief Willie Walsh’s comments last month that Hong Kong had ceased to function as an international aviation hub, Healy didn’t dispute them, but said it was Cathay’s job to “prove him wrong by staging a recovery to the best of our ability”.<br/>