Cathay cancels 34 flights as pilots fall sick

Cathay Pacific will cancel at least 34 flights from today to next Sunday.

The flagship airline last week warned it will cancel some year-end flights as a precaution due to illness among its pilots.

After the airline canceled more than 70 flights between last Friday and yesterday because of pilot absences caused by the flu, another wave of cancellations of at least 34 flights was announced yesterday.

Flights canceled this week include those flying to Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Dubai, Delhi and Dhaka.

According to the Hong Kong Aviation Forum's Facebook page and Cathay Pacific's website, among the canceled flights, CX360 and CX369 to and from Shanghai Pudong International Airport will be canceled for the entire six-day period.

The airline will rebook the flights to the next available flight for affected passengers who are advised to pay close attention and check new flight updates through Cathay's website, according to the forum.

The airline previously apologized to affected passengers and promised to reduce the impact of cancellations.

It stated that the company's overall operations remained normal and it has significantly increased the number of flights during the peak holiday travel period.

The airline will also provide goodwill status points to affected members who experienced a flight cancellation at the end of last month and due to the flight cancellation were unable to fly to meet their status renewals.

Travel agency EGL's executive director Steve Huen Kwok-chuen said he and two groups of tour members were rearranged to other flights on the same day during the past weekend, and no tour groups have been affected during the Lunar New Year so far.

"While Cathay Pacific is experiencing a shortage of manpower, the incident is understandable, although it has hindered the recovery of the airline industry's capacity," Huen said.

He believes the airline company will learn a lesson and adjust flight frequency and pilot working hours, and the incident will not affect Hong Kong's reputation.

"Over the past few days, the CX passenger operation has been under pressure with cancellations and delays because it hasn't got enough pilots. A year into the recovery the airline's passenger operation still has only 52 percent of the captains and first officers that it had pre-pandemic," Paul Weatherilt, chairman of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, earlier said.

Despite the shortage of pilots, the airline has also been facing challenges in training, recruiting, and retaining pilots, with only 107 pilots added last year, bringing the total number of pilots to 2,532 by last month, he added.