Cathay's flights improve, airline says

HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said Friday its flight operations were improving and it would resume more flights despite a pilot go-slow campaign entering the eleventh day.

"As our schedule reliability continues to improve we are pleased to be able to resume services to (six) destinations," said Tony Tyler, Cathay's director of corporate development.

"The number of pilots reporting sick has come down and is now closer to normal levels," he said.

The airline, Asia's fourth-largest by capacity, planned to operate 129 out of 144 scheduled flights on Friday. Cathay said in a statement it would restore its services to Penang, Cairns, Colombo, Delhi and Adelaide by July 21 and resume the New York route from August 1.

The airline has resumed services to Perth, Seoul, Manila, Taipei this week after it suspended flights to 10 destinations from Sunday in response to the pilots' action in a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Flights to Karachi and Manchester remained suspended.

The airline said it would release three of 17 chartered planes at the weekend as it brings operations back to about 90 percent of normal flights, and will release more over the coming week.

On Thursday, the carrier flew 126 flights out of an original schedule of 145. A total of 34 flights suffered delays.

Chartering aircraft

Cathay has sacked 52 pilots during the row but the pilots' union has vowed to press on with its industrial action, with aircrew working strictly in accordance with work and safety regulations, effectively slowing operations.

The union has repeatedly accused the company of deliberately grounding its own planes and pilots, and wasting money by chartering aircraft.

"They've chartered aircrafts unnecessarily, they've incurred expenses, they've inconvenienced passengers and they did so purely because they were mounting a campaign against the pilots' union," said John Findlay of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association.

A Cathay spokeswoman said chartered planes had to be used to ensure "reliable service" as the union had said it was not going to help during a typhoon which battered Hong Kong last weekend.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed since the start of the pilot's "work-to-rule" campaign on July 3 and the chaos peaked over the weekend during Typhoon Utor, stranding thousands of passengers at the airport.

Queues at the airport have since returned to normal, with customers checking with the airline well ahead of their flight times.

Sacked pilots

Financial analysts estimated the pilots' action was costing Cathay some HK$40 million (US$5.13 million) a day in terms of lost business and leasing costs.

Talks between Cathay and its pilots broke off in late June and the company has said it will not negotiate unless the pilots call off their campaign.

The pilots' union says reinstating the sacked pilots would become part of the agenda if talks resume.

Some of Cathay's top pilots are among the highest paid in the world, with some senior captains on expatriate terms earning as much as US$450,000 a year.

But the pilots' union says only a small number of pilots get such sky-high salaries and most are well below that.

Cathay imposed pay cuts on pilots during the Asian financial crisis in 1999. It posted a record profit in 2000.

Shares of Cathay ended 0.48 percent higher at HK$10.50 on Friday. The stock has fallen almost 38 percent in the past 12 months.

Reuters contributed to this report.