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Executive Column: Cathay Pacific eyes ASEAN cargo potential
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A Cathay Pacific 747 freighter stands on the apron of an airport in this undated photograph. (Cathay Pacific /-)
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irlines in Southeast Asia have enjoyed a strong recovery since the start of the year and are rushing to offer more flights to meet a rebound in demand for passenger services -- and take advantage of an unexpected boost from cargo.
Dominic Perret, Cathay Pacific's regional general manager Southeast Asia & Southwest Pacific, spoke with The Jakarta Post’s Vincent Fabian Thomas on Oct. 31 to discuss challenges and opportunities the airline industry is facing in this region.
Question: What is your view on the recovery of the airline industry in the ASEAN region?
Answer: I'm pretty bullish on ASEAN as a whole. There is big pent-up demand for travel, and I think we'll see a strong recovery. Many countries in this region have made significant changes to their policies and pivoted toward living with COVID-19 and started to open up.
We are adding flights again across ASEAN, like in Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. We have some places that we are waiting to relaunch, like Bali, Phuket and Penang. The latter is currently just for cargo, because we do not have passenger flights for now.
But there’s the situation in Hong Kong as well. [For us, the pandemic] impact has lasted a bit longer, because Hong Kong’s restrictions have lasted a little bit longer.
