Cathay Pacific Airways, Asia’s biggest international airline, reported first-half profit that missed analyst estimates after posting losses from jet-fuel hedges and passenger yields declined amid competition with Chinese carriers. Shares fell the most in a year.
Net income in the six months through June fell 82% to HK$353 million (US$45.5 million), Cathay said in a statement yesterday. That fell short of the HK$1.07 billion median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts. Sales declined 9.3% to HK$45.7 billion.
Cathay Chief Executive Officer Ivan Chu has struggled to revive profitability at the marquee Hong Kong carrier as passenger yields — the money earned from carrying a passenger for one kilometre, and a key measure of an airline’s profitability—slumped again amid competition with Chinese and Middle Eastern airlines. Chu, who has stuck with the airline’s fuel-hedging policy amid the plunge in oil prices, has ordered more than $10 billion in new aircraft to take on rivals.
