Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that an enhanced winter schedule with additional flights to a number of destinations will commence this month, putting the airline's plan to strengthen Hong Kong's status as the region's leading aviation hub back on track.

Cathay Pacific fully restored services to pre-SARS levels by the end of September. Services to London have also been ramped up to three times daily, more than any other carrier. A third weekly service has also already been added to Sapporo and the number of weekly flights to Auckland has been increased from seven to 10.

Additional services to Auckland, Melbourne and Rome will be mounted from the start of the airline's winter schedule on 26 October 2003.

Services to the Italian capital will increase from four to five a week. Melbourne will step up from 11 to 13 weekly flights and Auckland will go from 10 to 12 services a week. And from 1 December one more weekly service will operate to Johannesburg, taking it to six flights a week.

Following SARS, the airline was able to stimulate passenger demand and attract tourists back to Hong Kong with initiatives including the discounted 'Early Bird' fares, 'Visit Hong Kong Now' holiday packages and the multiple-ticket 'World Pass' promotion.

While passenger traffic has improved during the peak summer season yields have been depressed as competition amongst airlines remains keen.

Cathay Pacific Director and Chief Operating Officer Philip Chen said: "As Hong Kong's airline, Cathay Pacific remained committed to Hong Kong during the difficult period. We worked very hard to maintain our network and restore services in order to keep Hong Kong connected to the world, and started to progressively reinstate suspended services in July. Now we are continuing to strengthen Hong Kong's position as the region's leading hub by adding flights to key destinations."

Cathay Pacific Airways
Corporate Communication Department