HONG KONG, Oct 4 : Cathay Pacific Airways is weighing up if it needs smaller aircraft with fewer business class seats, as Covid-19 reshapes travel habits and the airline industry.
Cathay has already downsized its existing order for two Airbus A350-1000s to smaller -900s to save cash.of the 777X, due in 2022. The existence of those negotiations were disclosed on July 22.return to pre-crisis levelsMost airlines have grounded aircraft, with Cathay parking two-fifths of its fleet in a desert abroad, but most of the remaining passenger planes are still not flying.
Henry Harteveldt, principal at US aviation consultancy Atmosphere Research, said airlines were having to juggle their resources. “It takes time and money to reconfigure aircraft from one configuration to another ... but until then, they’re operating aircraft with suboptimal configurations,” Harteveldt said.
Due to Covid-19, most airlines grounded the even larger Airbus A380 for cost and environmental reasons.