Pilot flying-hour caps, illness led to flight cuts, says Cathay Pacific Airways

Cathay cancelled 9 per cent of the 126 planned departures from Hong Kong on Dec 30, airport data showed. - PHOTO: REUTERS

HONG KONG (Bloomberg): Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., grappling with flight cancellations over the holiday period that have frustrated passengers, acknowledged that pilots reaching or at their 12-month limit on flying hours had contributed to the problem.

While there were "elevated sickness rates on certain days,” the airline’s director of flight operations said in a memo that many had hit or come close to the cap of 900 block hours on a rolling 12-month basis, which meant "there is much less flexibility around the deployment of pilots on Reserve and days off.”