Cathay Pacific reported its 2021 interim results with revenues for 1H2021 dropping 43% to HKD 15.85bn ($2.04bn) in the previous year due to challenges posed by the pandemic. The company however managed to narrow its net loss by 23% YoY to HKD 7.57bn (970mn). Net borrowings increased 1.8% YoY to HKD 75.14bn ($9.66bn). Passenger revenues of the airline fell 93% YoY to HKD 745mn ($96mn) in H1 with passenger capacity falling 85% as they were impacted by travel restrictions, quarantine requirements and heightened by fears of the delta variant. The airline also witnessed a marginal decline of 0.6% YoY in its H1 cargo revenues at HKD 11.1bn ($1.43bn). The airline managed to reduce non-fuel costs by 33.5% to HKD 16.87bn ($2.17bn) and also introduced employee programmes such as unpaid leave and furloughs to save on costs. As of June 30, 2021 the airline had a liquidity of HKD 32.8bn ($4.22bn) after it raised HKD 13.24bn ($1.7bn) through the issuance of bonds. The HK Government has also extended a drawdown of a loan facility worth HKD 7.8bn ($1bn) extended in 2020. Patrick Healy, Chairman of the airline said, “We are only operating a small fraction of the passenger flights we were operating before the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope to operate up to 30% of our pre-pandemic passenger capacity by the fourth quarter of 2021…”
Cathay’s 3.375% 2023s and 2.75% 2026s were up 0.02 and 0.5 to trade at 99.94 and 101.13 respectively.
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