Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific gains profit of 2.3 bln HK dollars after two years of losses

HONG KONG, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific gained profit of more than 2.3 billion HK dollars (293 million U.S. dollars) last year, ending its two-year run of net loss, the company announced here Wednesday.

Cathay Pacific attributed its profit to increased revenues and reduced fuel hedging losses.

According to its 2018 annual results, Cathay Pacific saw a revenue of more than 111 billion HK dollars (14.14 billion dollars) in 2018, up 14.2 percent from 2017, benefiting from robust demand on passenger and cargo service. Last year, the passenger revenue was 73.12 billion HK dollars (9.32 billion dollars), and the cargo revenue was 28.32 billion HK dollars (3.61 billion dollars).

John Slosar, the chairman of the company, told the press that Cathay Pacific introduced passenger services to 10 destinations last year and increased frequencies on existing routes.

Slosar expected the business environment to remain challenging in 2019 as a less certain global trading environment, keen competition among airlines and additional costs will have an impact on the passenger and cargo business.

Faced up to such challenges, Cathay Pacific will continue its three-year transformation program, and grasp enormous opportunities from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said Slosar.