The carrier announced a 22 percent drop in first-quarter revenue, just weeks after it said it had lost more than a billion US dollars in 2008, the company's first full-year loss in a decade.

It blamed the losses on a demand slump triggered by the global slowdown as well as soured fuel hedging bets devised when prices were high before the slowdown kicked in.

"SARS was more dramatic in terms of revenue but it had a finite end and when it did we recovered quickly because the economy was quite strong -- 9/11 was a similar thing," chief executive Tony Tyler told a press conference.

"The problem with this one is there is no visibility on how long this will last and that makes it more challenging than anything I have experienced."

The September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 left thousands dead and ravaged the global aviation industry for months.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed 299 people in Hong Kong when it struck in 2003, battered the city's economy and led to a plummet in its key tourism industry forcing Cathay to issue its first ever profit warning.

One of Asia's biggest carriers, it said Friday all staff would be asked to take up to four weeks of unpaid holiday in the coming 12 months.

"Our staff are being asked to make sacrifices that will be needed to see the company through this violent storm," Tyler said in a statement released ahead of the press conference. "The pain will be shared from the top down."

Tyler said he and other executives would be signing up to the scheme, although they wouldn't be taking their time off.

"If the market deteriorates we will have to do more, that's obvious," he told reporters Friday.

"Perhaps we are about to turn the corner to the Promised Land... but I see no sign of it," he added.

The airline said first-quarter revenue from passenger and cargo services fell 22.4 percent year-on-year.

"The last crises were passenger crises but cargo was strong," chief operating officer John Slosar said Friday.

"The thing about this crisis is that they (passenger and cargo levels) are both down at the same time."

Like other carriers around the world, Cathay is trying to scale back capacity in line with weaker demand caused by the downturn, and said it was cutting services to major destinations across Asia and in Europe.

The company will make ad hoc cancellations of 17 round trips to London in May, with more likely in June, and cut its twice-daily service to Paris to one flight a day from September.

It will also reduce flights or capacity to Frankfurt, Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Mumbai and Dubai.

Its China-focused unit Dragonair will suspend flights to Fukuoka, Dalian, Shenyang, Guilin and Xian while reducing services to Bengaluru, Busan, Sanya and Shanghai.

Tyler said the airline had deferred delivery of two Boeing 777 aircraft to 2010 and was in talks with manufacturers on delaying other orders as the carrier seeks to conserve cash.

Airlines across Asia have been hit hard in the current climate.

Flag carrier Air China said Friday it had booked a net loss of 1.4 billion dollars in 2008.

On Thursday China Eastern, the third-biggest airline in China, said it lost 2.2 billion dollars last year and earlier in the week, Australia's Qantas announced 1,750 more job cuts after eliminating 1,500 last July.

Cathay's union of flight attendants said it did not know if the unpaid leave scheme was "fair and justifiable" but acknowledged the carrier, an iconic brand in the southern Chinese city, was facing trouble.

"We are willing to lend a hand during these difficult times," union chairwoman Becky Kwan told AFP.

Cathay's stock price fell 3.4 per cent to 9.25 Hong Kong dollars at Friday's close on the announcement.

In March it announced a loss of 8.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.1 billion US) last year -- after a seven billion Hong Kong dollar profit the previous year -- as it was hit by soaring fuel prices and falling cargo business.

Earlier this year the airline shelved plans to build a new cargo terminal at Hong Kong International Airport for two years.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News