Annunciati i risultati FY 2017 con perdite piu' che raddoppiate rispetto al 2016.
E' la prima volta nella storia della compagnia (71 anni) che ha chiuso i bilanci in perdita per due anni consecutivi.
Cathay Pacific racks up first back-to-back loss in 71-year history, at US$160 million
Robust earnings from cargo unit and a healthy contribution of profits from subsidiaries and associate businesses help offset steepest losses in 9 years
Cathay Pacific Airways, Asia’s largest international airline, saw its net loss more than double to HK$1.25 billion (US$160 million) in 2017 – the carrier’s first back-to-back loss in its 71-year history – as it restructures to turn around the business, the company announced on Wednesday.
Robust earnings from Cathay Pacific’s cargo unit and a much larger contribution of profits from subsidiaries and associate businesses helped offset the steepest loss in nine years as bad fuel hedging bets, one-off fines and redundancy costs dragged down results.
The results were better than some analysts’ estimates of a HK$2.8 billion net loss. The airline recorded a HK$575 million loss in 2016.
Total revenue grew 4.9 per cent to HK$97.2 billion but operating expenses increased 7.1 per cent to HK$101.3 billion.
Excluding one-off gains and losses, after a deficit of HK$2.05 billion in the first half of 2017, the airline managed to record a second-half profit of HK$792 million. The second half of the year is traditionally a stronger period for the airline.
However, a number of one-off factors affected the airline’s earnings including a HK$498 million fine from the European Commission and HK$224 million associated with redundancy charges.
The airline booked gains of HK$830 million, including disposal of its interest in TravelSky Technology for a profit of HK$586 million.
Losses associated with the airline’s core business worsened to HK$4.3 billion from HK$3.3 billion the year before.
“We took decisive action through our transformation programme to make our businesses leaner and more agile and more effective competitors,” Cathay Pacific Airways chairman John Slosar said.
“Our focus in 2017 was on building the right foundations, structure and strategy to improve revenue and to better contain costs. Evidence of progress became apparent in the second half of the year.”
Signalling that the airline was moving in a positive direction, Slosar added: “As the year progressed we began to see positive results from our transformation programme and our business also benefited from a strong cargo business, a weaker US dollar, and improved premium class passenger demand.”
Passenger yield, a measure of how much an airline makes on air tickets, fell 3.3 per cent to 52.3 HK cents, as Cathay again faced overcapacity in key markets leading to “intense competition”.
Cargo yield jumped 11.3 per cent to HK$1.77, on the back of stronger demand.
Another closely monitored metric, cost per available tonne kilometre (excluding fuel), reflecting its cost structure, rose slightly to HK$2.14, indicating the airline still had more work to do to rein in costs.
Analyst Corrine Png, CEO of Crucial Perspective, said: “Cathay Pacific was widely expected to incur a substantial loss so investors are encouraged that the airline actually made a profit in the second half of 2017.”
But she added that Cathay will “need to work harder at improving cost efficiencies to boost its long-term competitiveness and profit margins more significantly in 2018 and beyond.”
Fuel costs being the airline’s biggest expense, total costs rose to HK$31.1 billion, even as losses associated with hedging contracts fell to HK$6.3 billion.
Cathay Pacific and its regional airline Cathay Dragon carried 34.8 million passengers, down 0.1 percentage points year on year.
Geoffrey Cheng, deputy head of research at Bocom International, said the airline’s core loss-making business “was still a bit of an issue” but the results were “quite positive”.
Hong Kong’s biggest airline has cut 600 jobs so far as it overhauls its business in response to stiff competition, particularly as vigorous expansion from mainland Chinese and Middle East airlines and low-cost carriers erode market share.
Despite the poor performance, Cathay Pacific kept its full-year dividend unchanged at 5 HK cents per share. Loss per share more than doubled to 32 HK cents from 14.6 HK cents.
Cathay shares climbed 3.2 per cent, to HK$14.22, in afternoon trading in Hong Kong.
Tagli in arrivo per sales, marketing, cargo e airport ops sulle station internazionali. Anconra non e' chiaro se e quanto verranno impattati i dipendenti in Europa.
Cathay Plans Job Cuts Overseas Amid Competition From China Rivals
Employees were briefed on reorganization, retirement program
Cathay faces competition from budget airlines, China carriers
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. offered a voluntary early retirement package to employees in Japan as part of a three-year restructuring effort to revive earnings growth.
Cathay is undergoing a “comprehensive review” of regional organization including Northeast Asia, which consists of Japan, Taiwan and Korea, the airline’s Japan office said in emailed comments. Employees in Japan were briefed on the general outline of the new organization at a July 23 meeting, where the voluntary early retirement program was also announced, it said.
Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hogg is trying to turn around Cathay’s fortunes in the face of growing competition from budget carriers and Chinese rivals. Cathay -- which cut 600 jobs in Hong Kong last year -- would be looking at restructuring overseas operations after the efforts in its home city, Chairman John Slosar said in August last year.
The restructuring process has yet to be finalized, Cathay Japan said in the statement. A spokeswoman at Cathay’s South Korean office said it’s undergoing structural changes in line with what has been done at the Hong Kong headquarters and declined to specify whether there would be job losses. Taiwan operations will follow the structure set by the head office, Cathay’s Taipei office said in an email.
The comments follow a South China Morning Post report that the airline plans to cut jobs at its overseas operations. The company has about 7,600 employees based in 100 locations outside Hong Kong, according to the report, which didn’t say how many would be affected.
Cathay is reorganizing other teams to enable quicker and better informed decisions to be made, following the redesign of its head office structure, the carrier’s Hong Kong office said in an emailed response to questions.
An internal memo has been shared with employees on the restructuring, and this work will continue over the coming months, Cathay said. The aim is to establish a structure that “modernizes our ways of working and thinking, makes us leaner and more agile,” the airline said, without referring to any job cuts.
The carrier will reduce costs by more than HK$4 billion ($510 million) over three years under its reform plan, with about HK$1 billion expected to come from scaling back pilots’ benefits and allowances, the newspaper said. Cathay has yet to reach any agreement with its pilots.
Increased earnings from associates including Air China Ltd., in which Cathay owns 18 percent, helped the Hong Kong carrier post a net income of HK$792 million in the second half of 2017. Still, competition from Chinese airlines and fuel-hedging losses resulted in a full-year net loss of HK$1.26 billion. That was its widest loss in five years, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.
