The Hindu : HK declared SARS free, Cathay Pacific gears up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 27, 2003

Business

Business

HK declared SARS free, Cathay Pacific gears up

By T. S. Shankar

CHENNAI JUNE 26. While welcoming the World Health Organisation's (WHO) decision to lift Hong Kong from the list of SARS affected areas by declaring the destination "SARS free'' by removing the WHO's travel adversary from May 23, the Cathay Pacific Airways is in the process of unleashing a series of "recovery initiatives'' aimed at wooing global business and leisure travellers covering Indian market. Giving details of the series of large-scale promotional campaigns, Tom Owen, Country Manager, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, for Cathay Pacific Airways, told The Hindu here today that under the overall plan of reviving the airline from its present "survival mode,'' it would restore 170 flights each week in July and plans were afoot to operate 85 per cent of scheduled services by August and 94 per cent in September.

Pointing out that the Cathay Pacific Airways attached great importance to Indian traffic, Mr. Owen said the foreign carrier had "optimally'' utilised its "operating rights'' to India by operating four times a week each to New Delhi and Mumbai by deploying Airbus-330 and Boeing-777 latest generation airplanes. "We have an ambitious plan to see daily flights out of Mumbai and New Delhi and then bring either Chennai or Bangalore in the airlines global network,'' he added.

"Our aim is now to spread the message globally that Hong Kong is a safe and free from SARS to visit and at the same time restore normalcy in the to and fro traffic and regain the 35,000 per day travellers visiting Hong Kong after it had plummeted to an all-time low of 7,000 during April to June this year on account of SARS,'' Mr. Owen said adding all out efforts were on to rebuild the local tourism industry in association with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).

Under this master tourism promotional campaign, the Cathay Pacific Airways has announced that it would give away 10,000 tickets free to support HKTB's initiatives all over the world. These air tickets will be distributed as competition prizes worldwide in support of the launch of HKTB's "Welcome Day'' event planned in August to help bring international visitors to Hong Kong.

As part of an exclusive initiative by the Hong Kong-based airline, Mr. Owen said, "Visit Hong Kong Now'' promotion has been launched, offering up to 50 per cent rebate on the flight and hotel packages. The airline had also announced a special package for travel agents to visit Hong Kong at a cost of Rs. 4, 500.

Mr. Owen, who is now touring all important Southern regional gateway points, said Cathay pacific Airways already had marketing tie-ups with Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India for providing convenient onward connections out of Singapore besides giving a through-check-in facility from the domestic boarding point.

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