Day: January 7, 2024

Seoul, South Korea — Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways will cut a dozen flights a day on average until the end of February, the airline said Sunday, in a move to avoid cancellations as the busy Lunar New Year travel season approaches. 

Cathay had to cancel some flights over the peak travel period for Christmas and the year end because its operations were stretched, it said in a statement. 

“[Cathay] has consolidated on average six flight pairs per day for the rest of January and February, focusing on routes with multiple daily frequencies, where possible,” it added. 

The carrier said it had reviewed its flight schedule and increased the numbers of pilots on standby to avoid disruption in the coming weeks. 

Cathay, which said in November it intended to recruit 5,000 more staff during 2024, had pruned employees drastically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and changed staff contract terms and conditions. 

Last month, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA), which represents some of its pilots, said Cathay’s passenger business had 58% of the pilots it had before the pandemic. 

In a November briefing to analysts, Cathay dropped a goal of rebuilding its cargo and passenger capacity to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, giving no new date. 

In October, passenger capacity was 62% of 2019 levels, and cargo operations were at 79%, the airline said.   

Maldives — The Maldives government has suspended three deputy ministers for disparaging India’s prime minister, an official said Sunday, during a dip in ties with its powerful neighbor.

Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid all worked for the archipelago’s Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts and were disciplined for their comments on social media, the senior government official told Reuters.

The three had variously labeled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “clown,” “terrorist” and “puppet of Israel” on social media platform X, in response to a video of him visiting the Indian islands of Lakshadweep to promote local tourism.

Some viewed his visit as trying to draw tourists away from the globally popular Maldives, whose 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean are dotted with luxury resorts.

The Indian High Commission in the Maldives had “strongly raised and expressed concerns” over the comments, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The controversy comes ahead of a visit by President Mohamed Muizzu to China on Jan. 8-12. Muizzu won election last year with a pledge to end the Maldives’ “India first” policy in a region where New Delhi and Beijing compete for influence.

Muizzu also pledged to remove a small contingent of 75 Indian military personnel from the nation of just over half a million people.

Tourism campaign

Some prominent Indians, including actor Akshay Kumar and cricketer Hardik Pandya, expressed dismay at the comments by the now suspended Maldivian officials.

Neither of the three were immediately available for comment.

In a campaign to promote local tourism, other Indians, from former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to actor Salman Khan, have urged people to visit their own islands rather than go abroad.

#ExploreIndianIslands is the second largest trending hashtag in India on X, and some Indians are sharing screenshots of canceled bookings of Maldivian holidays.

Maldives’ Foreign Ministry said the government was aware of “derogatory remarks” against foreign leaders and would not tolerate them.

“India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries,” added former Maldives President Ibrahim Solih on X.