Cathay Pacific financial strength validates its strategy and sets the stage for growth

Cathay Pacific is continuing to build on its robust recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 era, with profit growth and hub expansion supporting its plans to order more aircraft.

While Cathay is facing the same fuel cost headaches as other airlines, it has still managed to increase its net profit for the first half of this year - something many other Asia Pacific carriers have not achieved.

Cathay was relatively slow to restore its capacity after the COVID-19 pandemic. It has taken a careful approach to raising capacity, growing in a considered manner driven by demand.

The airline believes its approach in recent years has put it in a good position to deal with the fuel cost spike, and its results would appear to back that up.

The group is aiming to stick to its capacity growth targets for the full year despite the latest cost challenges.

Cathay has placed a series of major aircraft orders over the past three years to address various fleet needs.

It is now considering more orders to boost its backlog to where it needs to be to meet its long-term fleet needs.