Cathay Pacific Gears Up for Airbus Fleet

When Cathay was originally planning its long range airliner fleet in its placement for orders for 747-400s, it did not envisage the need to serve European ports outside London, Frankfurt and Paris. Cathay currently serves other European cities such as Zurich and Rome via tag services, extensions of flights to the three main European centres. However Cathay is finding these tag services increasingly more expensive to operate, and less and less competitive, particularly as Alitalia and Swissair now operate nonstop services to Hong Kong from Rome and Zurich respectively using MD-11s. Thus there became an increasingly urgent need for a long range airliner smaller in capacity to the 747-400 able to service such nonstop routes profitably. The most obvious candidates for the job were the 777B and A340. Cathay studied both aircraft thoroughly, but, according to Cathay Chairman Peter Sutch, “at the end of the day it was a very clear cut decision.” The A340 won out in a number of areas, including its early availability, smaller seating capacity so it is easier to fill, and better payload range.

The four A340-200s (originally destined for PAL) will initially be used on regional Asian routes as crews build up experience on the type, and then will be used for nonstop services to Zurich, Rome and Amsterdam. They will be configured to seat 12 first, 44 business and 177 economy class passengers. When the six high gross weight A340-300s come on line Cathay will explore using the type for other services, including to Auckland and Johannesburg. The A340-300 seating configuration has yet to be finalised, but they will probably seat approximately 270 in three classes. In addition the A340 will allow Cathay to build up frequencies on long range flights already operated by 747-400s such as to London and Frankfurt. Traffic currently would not justify adding a second daily 747-400 service to these cities, but the smaller A340 may make such additional services viable.

Cathay has also shown considerable interest in Airbus’ proposed 8000nm (14,825km) range development of the A340-200, dubbed the A340-“8000”. This aircraft would allow nonstop services between Hong Kong and New York, something that is currently possible with the A340-200, but only in favourable weather conditions and with a restrictive payload range penalty. Cathay joins the growing number of airlines to order the A340 for operations on such long range point to point services. Singapore Airlines too has orders for a large fleet of A340s which can reasonably be expected to operate nonstop services between Singapore and secondary European cities. Time will tell if other airlines in our region, such as Qantas, a notable long time Boeing customer, follow this logical and competitive path.

Another major benefit in operating the A340 is its very close commonality to the A330, of which Cathay Pacific has nine on firm order. The A330s will be used as direct replacements for the airline’s current fleet of Lockheed L-1011 Tristars and will largely be used on regional Asian services. The A330s will be configured to seat 50 business and 270 economy class passengers, slightly more than the Tristars. Compared with the Tristar the A330 has considerably better range performance, which will mean they will be able to operate out of Asia to ports in Australia, likely to be Cairns, Brisbane and Perth, and the Middle East. The A330 is also far more efficient than the Tristar, and much less costly to maintain (by as much as a half, if not more), particularly as it only has two engines. Indeed Airbus claims it to be the most efficient airliner yet built. The A330 also has more than twice the freight capacity of the Tristar. That is not to criticise the Tristar though, Cathay has been very happy with its fleet over the years.

The first Tristar is due to be retired this October with the delivery of the first A340-200. The last of the current fleet of 19 (some of which are operated by Dragonair) will be retired in mid 1996. Prior to the first A330 delivery in January next year, Cathay will participate in the A330/Trent combination certification programme. Cathay’s first A330, which incidentally will be the first aircraft in the new Cathay Pacific livery, will undertake a route proving programme in the coming months. The A330 will be based with Cathay in Hong Kong and will be used in typical airline style operations to prove the aircraft and engine combination’s ability to operate under airline conditions. This should see the A330 undertake a number of short medium and long range flights on Cathay Pacific routes, which will include a visit to Australia. The route proving programme will also give Cathay valuable practical experience in operating the A330 before the aircraft is actually delivered.

Interestingly, with its order for the A330 in May 1989 Cathay was the last major Asian airline to order Airbus aircraft, but by 1997 it will have a fleet of at least 14 Airbus aircraft, more if options are exercised. And while Airbus has been in the news lately with a number of highly publicised fatal crashes, including the controversial crash of an A330 under flight test from Toulouse, Peter Sutch commented that Airbus “builds first class aircraft,” and that Cathay has “complete and full confidence in Airbus’ technical abilities.” Cathay will become the first, and thus far only, airline to operate both the A330 and A340, and despite being of different configurations for different roles, the two types enjoy considerable commonality in every area except engines. The main benefits will be in the need to keep a reduced number of expensive spares in stock, and that because of their near identical cockpits and flying qualities, and Airbus’ Cross Crew Qualification (CCQ) training concept, both types can be flown by a common pool of pilots.

The third new type due for introduction to the Cathay fleet is the Boeing 777A, four of which are on firm order. These aircraft will replace 747-200s on regional routes, and the first is scheduled to come on line from March 1996. Why Cathay ordered aircraft of similar size and capability in the 777A and A330 has raised some eyebrows, however Cathay is more interested in the proposed stretched 777. This aircraft would seat more than 400 passengers in three classes and would be a direct replacement for the 747-200s and -300s on regional services. Cathay would hope to have such an aircraft in service by the turn of the century, and would use current 777 options for eight to acquire them. Other fleet movements in coming years will see the delivery of one additional leased 747-400 next year, bringing the Cathay fleet of the type to 19, and the second 747-400F Freighter, also due for delivery during 1995.

At least one of the A330s will be delivered direct to sister airline Dragonair, to allow it to cope with growing traffic demands, a situation made possible by the delivery of the A340-200s. In fact the close links between Dragonair, Cathay Pacific plus the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAECO), (which all share common part owners) will work to Cathay’s benefit in introducing the new Airbus aircraft to the fleet. Cathay is able to draw on Dragonair’s experience in operating similar technology level Airbus A320s, which are used for regional services to China and Asia. HAECO meanwhile has considerable experience in performing third party maintenance on Airbus aircraft. It currently carries out both heavy maintenance and transit checks on A300s, A310s, A320s and A340s.