A Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 passenger jet. Cathay Pacific Airways plans to start a new round of negotiations to buy long-haul jets from next year as the airline looks to position itself for growth in the next decade.
“The end of the decade is not far away. We have got to place our orders now,” Alex McGowan, Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer said Tuesday. The comments come shortly after the company committed to spending HK$100bn mostly on new aircraft through 2030.
McGowan said the likely review of new aircraft purchases would examine widebody jets as small as the Boeing Co 787 and as large as a 777-9.
The airline’s next long-haul aircraft order will be “the final component” in a series of deals in recent years, the Cathay executive added, speaking on the sidelines of a CAPA aviation conference in Hong Kong, where the carrier is based.
Cathay’s interest in ordering more aircraft opens the door for Boeing after the US planemaker lost out to arch-rival Airbus SE on consecutive single-aisle and widebody passenger and freighter deals. Earlier Tuesday, Boeing workers voted to accept a new labour contract, ending a strike that had crippled jetliner production for 53 days.
Cathay is edging towards a full recovery following the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on global travel and is now operating at around 90% of its pre-pandemic flight levels, McGowan said earlier on-stage at the event.
