Cathay signals rebound from COVID with first profit, dividend since 2019

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Cathay Pacific reported its first annual profit in four years as the airline left behind the pandemic-linked restrictions that drove heavy losses and layoffs, pushing its shares to a four-year high.

Hong Kong's flagship airline said on Wednesday it earned a net profit of HK$9.79 billion ($1.25 billion) in 2023, above the average HK$8.67 billion estimated in an LSEG survey of nine analysts and the highest since the HK$14 billion made in 2010.

Cathay said it would pay its first dividend since 2019, which brokerage Jefferies said was the "key surprise" in the results. The airline also plans to expand its workforce by around 20%, or 5,000 people, this year.

A jump in demand after the lifting of COVID-related travel restrictions contributed to the strong financial performance, Cathay Group Chair Patrick Healy said in a statement. Hong Kong and mainland China lifted global travel curbs in early 2023.

Revenue jumped 85% in 2023 to HK$94.5 billion.

The airline said it aims to reach 80% of its pre-pandemic passenger flights within the second quarter of this year, and 100% by the first quarter of 2025 - three months later than a previously stated target.

Cathay's shares ended up 5.8%, its highest close in more than four years, outpacing a flat broader market.

Shares in Cathay's largest shareholder, Swire Pacific, closed up more than 3%.

The airline was offered a $5 billion pandemic-related rescue package led by the Hong Kong government in 2020. It intends to repay the remaining half of the government's preference shares by the end of July. Cathay had posted a loss of HK$6.6 billion in 2022.

CHALLENGES

The carrier has restored capacity more slowly than its closest rival, Singapore Airlines, because it faced tighter quarantine rules for longer, and needed to hire more staff to bring back services.

A shortage of staff led the airline to cancel and reduce flights. Cathay executives told a press conference that the days of flight cancellations were over and it would have enough pilots to meet its targets.

While the results indicate how far Cathay has come in its recovery journey, Asia's aviation industry faces uncertainties as travel conditions normalise and as China's economy shows no signs of a sustained recovery.

A global imbalance between supply of flights and travel demand last year drove up ticket prices and airline yields.

"We expect this imbalance to diminish and yields to continue to normalise throughout 2024 as airlines around the world continue to add capacity," Cathay CEO Ronald Lam said.

Singapore Airlines last month also warned that the high yields of the post-pandemic travel boom were being pressured by high fuel prices, inflation, supply chain shortages and increased competition.

Bloomberg News reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter, that Cathay's second-largest shareholder Air China Ltd had recently consulted with advisers about raising its nearly 30% stake.

Healy, also a director of Swire which holds 45% of Cathay, said Cathay would not comment on speculation, adding Swire had no intention of trimming its stake.

"Swire's commitment to Cathay remains absolute," he said.

Cathay reiterated that it is still in the market to order new mid-size wide-body aircraft.

($1 = 7.8243 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington in Seoul; Additional reporting by Dorothy Kam in Hong Kong and Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Bernadette Baum)