Cathay Pacific share price down 0.77% after firm warns of “significant” revenue impact

Shares of Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific slid lower on Thursday after the group warned of “significant impact” on its revenue for August and the months ahead due to fallen travel demand caused by anti-government protests in the country.

In an emailed statement on Wednesday, Cathay’s chief customer officer Ronald Lam said both business and travel into Hong Kong has weakened substantially. Traffic to Hong Kong has started to soften, especially for shorter flights to countries like China and South Korea, he said.

The group’s shares fell 0.77% or HK$0.08, at HK$10.34 on Thursday morning, 10.14am local time.

Year-to-date, Cathay’s shares have fallen by 7%, from HK$11.12 on January 2, 2019.

The airline has been facing boycotts from Chinese state-owned firms after reports said that the group’s airline staff participated in the protests against China’s government.

China’s aviation regulator has demanded for Cathay to prevent airline staff who have shown support for the protests from working on flights to the mainland or routed through Chinese airspace. It also ordered for the handing over of identity information of staff bound to the mainland for security checks.

Cathay had said earlier this month that inbound traffic to Hong Kong was down in July due to the protests and forwarding bookings which fell “double-digit” in percentage.

For the month of July, Cathay said its overall traffic rose 6.7%. The airline had filled 86.1% in seating capacity, compared with 86.7% in the same month a year ago.

Earlier this week Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam offered a ‘platform for dialogue’ to work things out with the public.