A Post check of Cathay’s Tuesday flights showed another 22 cancellations.

Cathay on Sunday said it planned to cut an average of 12 flights a day until the end of February, assuring affected passengers they would be offered convenient alternative flying times or a refund.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung on Monday said he had expressed his “grave concerns” to Cathay’s senior management about the plan, and called on the airline to “carefully review flight allocation and manpower arrangements, maintain good communication with employees, and ensure that it provides stable and reliable services to passengers”.

He said Cathay should notify affected passengers “as soon as possible” and “provide appropriate support” such as transferring them to its other flights, or even those of other airlines.

Hong Kong’s Cathay cuts flights to ease Lunar New Year holiday strain

The cuts follow a wave of cancellations by the carrier over the Christmas and New Year holidays, when its operations were stretched due to a shortage of experienced pilots for passenger flights.

Some who faced cancellations on Monday expressed frustration with the abrupt change to their travel plans.

Affected routes included Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Seoul, Bangkok and Vancouver.

Lachlan Lau, a Hongkonger in his 40s who works in the textiles industry, said he was notified by a text message that his flight back to Hong Kong from Ho Chi Minh City on January 12 had been cancelled.

But Lau said that rather than contacting him to make arrangements that would suit his schedule, the carrier just rebooked him on a flight the next day instead.

“It doesn’t work for me,” Lau said. “I need to fly back on Friday. It will be super chaotic to move my appointments.”

Lau, a Diamond, or top tier, member of Cathay’s customer loyalty programme, said he flew with the airline owing to its “highest quality of service”, but added that recently he felt it had been “struggling” to maintain its reputation.

“Punctuality is the key for business travellers like myself,” he said. “If they continue to fail, I cannot see the reason I have to stick with them.”

Hong Kong’s Cathay vows to avoid repeat of cancellations, as pilots hit hour limit

Freddy Yip Hing-ning, president of the Hong Kong Travel Agent Owners Association, said Cathay’s recent cancellations had inconvenienced the industry, with firms having to rebook or change travel dates for clients.

“If they are short of crew, Cathay should not announce the schedule. Once they put the schedule in the system, passengers or the travel agency start to book,” he said.

“When they cancel, it will upset the whole trip for businesspeople or for those on holiday. That is no good.”

However, Law Cheung-kwok, senior adviser at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Aviation Research and Policy Centre, noted that most of the cancellations were on regional routes with multiple flights per day, such as to Taiwan, Bangkok, Beijing and Singapore.

The airline should have been able to transfer affected passengers to flights on the same day, he added.

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Paul Weatherilt, chairman of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, which represents Cathay pilots, said the crew shortage was a consequence of layoffs during the airline’s restructuring plan in October 2020, when it axed 5,300 jobs locally and closed regional arm Cathay Dragon in a bid to survive the pandemic.

It extended cost-cutting contracts to all remaining staff. Hundreds of pilots subsequently resigned during the pandemic, with many pointing to reduced pay and service conditions under the new contract.

“I think the simplest explanation is that they are trying to run a 70 per cent pre-pandemic schedule, but have found that they don’t have enough pilots to achieve this,” he said, pointing to the carrier having 52 per cent of the captains and first officers that it had in pre-pandemic times.

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According to the association, Cathay had 2,532 pilots as of last month, compared with 3,885 in the fourth quarter of 2019, a decrease of nearly 35 per cent.

Cathay told the Post last week that it has been “turning on all the taps to recruit people to support our rebuilding journey” and insisted it was on track to reach its rebuilding target.

It planned to hire around 5,000 people this year, a Cathay spokesman said previously, adding that nearly 2,000 former employees have returned to the group.

Cathay and its budget carrier HK Express aim to fully restore pre-pandemic passenger capacity by the end of 2024.

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