Cathay Pacific plans $8b aircraft spend
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific yesterday announced plans to buy 30 new planes for almost $8 billion, underlining the carrier’s expansion as it reported strong first-half profits. In a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange, Cathay said the total catalogue...
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific yesterday announced plans to buy 30 new planes for almost $8 billion, underlining the carrier’s expansion as it reported strong first-half profits.
In a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange, Cathay said the total catalogue price for the 30 Airbus A350-900s would be approximately $7.82 billion.
The planes, powered by new generation Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, will be delivered between 2016 and 2019 to form the backbone of the airline’s mid-size wide-body fleet for long haul flights.
“This is the largest single purchase the company has made, and, I dare say, the largest single investment made by any commercial company in Hong Kong in recent years,” Cathay chairman Christopher Pratt told a press conference.
The carrier said it also intended to exercise existing purchase rights for six Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with a catalogue price of about $1.61 billion.
Tony Tyler, the company’s chief executive, said Cathay had no plans to buy the Airbus A380 superjumbo or Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes as the A350-900 was best suited to its services. “The others, certainly for the moment, are not under our consideration.”Cathay separately announced its net profit for the first half of 2010 had soared eight-fold to $880 million thanks to robust passenger and freight demand.