Cathay Pacific headed for 1st-half profit after 3 years in the red

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways expects to turn a profit for the January-June half for the first time in four years, the company said Friday, fueled by resurgent travel to Japan and other destinations. Cathay Pacific carried 6.26m passengers from January to May, roughly 34 times as many as a year earlier. In May alone, passenger numbers climbed about 24-fold from a year earlier. "Travel to Japan and Thailand [was] particularly popular" in May, said Lavinia Lau, chief customer and commercial officer, in a press release. "The peak summer season looks promising," Lau also said. The airline suffered a consolidated net loss of about 5.3b Hong Kong dollars ($677m at current rates) in January-June a year ago, part of three straight years of annual losses. The Hong Kong government followed mainland China in imposing strict border controls during the coronavirus pandemic, hitting Cathay Pacific hard. The company cut 8,500 jobs, or 24% of its workforce, in 2020. As a result, the airline faced a shortage of pilots and cabin attendants when travel recovered, hurting its ability to increase flights. Hong Kong's government is buying tickets from various airlines as part of a campaign to attract overseas visitors by giving away 500,000 free round-trip tickets. Cathay Pacific and its affiliated low-cost carrier Hong Kong Express will start accepting applications for the campaign in Japan starting on Monday.<br/>