Cathay Pacific reports record-high HK$9.9 billion loss in first half of 2020

This does probably not come as a surprise to anyone, but Cathay Pacific is loosing money fast. With a reported drop in passenger number of more than 98.5% compared to a year ago, it is basically only the cargo division that is bringing some cash in for the company.

During the first 6 months of 2020 Cathay Pacific has reported a loss of 9.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.27 billion USD).

Those last 6 months have without a doubt been the hardest 6 months for the company, who last year reported a profit of more than 1.3 billion HKD (167 million USD).

With global demand for air travel at a all time low, and no improvement in sight (Cathay has apparently said they expect no increase in their traffic number until March 2021 at the earliest) this loss will probably only get worse this next 6 months.

Although Cathay has performed a lot of cost cutting exercised (and apparently they have cut their costs by about 1/3) they are still taking huge losses with their revenue down close to 50%. In previous crises Cathay has managed to continue operations without having to fire any air crew (during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s for example), but with traffic numbers at a all-time (and steady) low with no improvement in sight I am afraid that we will see more cuts all across the line if there will be any hope of Cathay surviving this next 12 months.