Following the earlier announcement of a seven-day pause in all its long-haul freighter flights which expires January 6, Cathay Pacific Cargo said it will continue to limit this service — telling its customers that there will "continue to be very substantial reductions" to its long-haul capacity in the first quarter of the year.

The update came as Hong Kong also announced a halt on flights from eight countries: the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United States starting January 8 for 14 days amid a recent surge in the Omicron variant of Covid-19 which is also expected to further put a squeeze on cargo capacity in and out of the major cargo hub.

Regional freighter services to continue

"Following our announcement on 30 December, we regret to inform customers that due to the latest aircrew quarantine measures imposed by the Hong Kong SAR Government in view of rising Omicron cases around the world, there will continue to be very substantial reductions to Cathay Pacific Cargo’s long-haul capacity in the first quarter of 2022," Cathay Pacific Cargo said in a statement on January 6.

It added, however, that regional freighter services will continue "as scheduled" as it released its freighter frequencies for the months of January, February and March 2022  — which it said is "firm, subject to no further changes to crew quarantine requirements."

"Our regional freighter services will continue to operate as scheduled and we will continue to explore opportunities to increase regional frequencies to meet demand," the Hong Kong-based carrier added.

Cathay Pacific Cargo noted that despite this, the carrier is "exploring alternative operating modes" to increase long-haul freighter capacity beyond this base schedule.

"However, such capacity is likely to be limited and will take time to implement," it added.

"Regional cargo-only passenger flight (COP) services will operate as scheduled in the first quarter, while COP services to The Americas will remain suspended in January and only a skeleton COP schedule to Europe and South West Pacific will be operated," Cathay Pacific added, noting that the carrier is "assessing options to increase long-haul COP capacity in February, however, this is likely to be limited."

"We will continue to review our current operations and will update customers in the event that there are further changes," the Hong Kong-based airline continued.

"This overall reduction in capacity will severely impact contracted cargo."

Cathay said its local teams will contact affected customers directly with further information regarding contracted cargo.

"We sincerely apologise for the disruption caused. Our local teams will continue to work with customers to mitigate this latest disruption as much as possible," Cathay Pacific added.