iMad
16th Apr 2009, 10:22
Message from the Chief Executive – Invitation to briefings for staff on Friday
Posted On: 16 Apr 2009
Dear colleagues,
I’m sure you are aware that the global economic meltdown is hitting the aviation industry hard. At Cathay Pacific, a toxic combination of low fares, weak front-end business, poor cargo loads, falling yields and negative currency impact is making it more important than ever to preserve cash.
Tomorrow Chief Operating Officer John Slosar and I will host a series of briefings in the Auditorium at which we will outline our strategy for dealing with the current situation. We will announce a series of measures that will help preserve cash and put us in a stronger position to maintain the long-term sustainability of our business. These are important briefings and I urge you all to attend.
As we’ve communicated repeatedly this year, we expect the whole of 2009 to be extremely challenging. Our revenues - passenger and cargo - have been significantly affected by the downturn, and even though our back-end loads are still quite high, most of those passengers are travelling at very low fares.
Our absolute priority must be to preserve and save cash wherever possible. We have done a lot already to lessen the impact of the downturn including deferring capital expenditure, speeding up the retirement of the Classics, parking aircraft, redeploying capacity to more profitable routes, introducing voluntary unpaid leave, reducing our marketing spend and putting a hiring freeze in place.
But it is not enough. That is why are we are taking these further measures which we will communicate to you at the briefings on Friday and through other internal media. Please refer to the details of the staff briefings below.
Posted On: 16 Apr 2009
Dear colleagues,
I’m sure you are aware that the global economic meltdown is hitting the aviation industry hard. At Cathay Pacific, a toxic combination of low fares, weak front-end business, poor cargo loads, falling yields and negative currency impact is making it more important than ever to preserve cash.
Tomorrow Chief Operating Officer John Slosar and I will host a series of briefings in the Auditorium at which we will outline our strategy for dealing with the current situation. We will announce a series of measures that will help preserve cash and put us in a stronger position to maintain the long-term sustainability of our business. These are important briefings and I urge you all to attend.
As we’ve communicated repeatedly this year, we expect the whole of 2009 to be extremely challenging. Our revenues - passenger and cargo - have been significantly affected by the downturn, and even though our back-end loads are still quite high, most of those passengers are travelling at very low fares.
Our absolute priority must be to preserve and save cash wherever possible. We have done a lot already to lessen the impact of the downturn including deferring capital expenditure, speeding up the retirement of the Classics, parking aircraft, redeploying capacity to more profitable routes, introducing voluntary unpaid leave, reducing our marketing spend and putting a hiring freeze in place.
But it is not enough. That is why are we are taking these further measures which we will communicate to you at the briefings on Friday and through other internal media. Please refer to the details of the staff briefings below.