The Cathay Group welcomes again its final plane from long-term abroad parking

– June 11, 2024 —

The homecoming marks the shut of a exceptional chapter within the provider’s rebuild journey

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 The Cathay Group celebrated the completion of probably the most unprecedented undertakings in its 77-year historical past when on 6 June 2024, it reactivated the eighty fifth and closing plane to be long-term parked abroad. After practically 4 years within the Australian desert, Cathay Pacific’s Airbus A330 registration B-HLV returned to Hong Kong, the place it is going to now bear an intensive hangar upkeep verify. B-HLV was the primary of the Cathay Group’s plane to enter long-term parking abroad on 28 July 2020, as international air journey got here to a near-standstill throughout the pandemic.

On the peak of the pandemic, Cathay Pacific and HK Specific needed to park nearly all of their passenger fleet at Hong Kong Worldwide Airport and abroad in Alice Springs, Australia and Ciudad Actual, Spain. Because the pandemic started to subside, the Cathay Group commenced the progressive reactivation of those plane. This concerned the efficiency of a rigorous collection of upkeep checks and inspections to make sure security and efficiency.

Chief Operations and Service Supply Officer Alex McGowan stated: “Parking and reactivating so many plane is a once-in-a-lifetime endeavor, the dimensions and complexity of which has by no means been seen earlier than at Cathay. ​ An unbelievable quantity of labor goes into holding an plane secure and guarded when it isn’t flying, and to then reactivate it for entry again into common service. To do that for greater than 85 plane long-term parked abroad, in addition to to handle the big variety of plane that had been parked in Hong Kong, is an outstanding achievement. Our heartfelt thanks exit to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Division for his or her invaluable assist all through this course of.

“Our groups in Hong Kong and around the globe have been instrumental in guaranteeing our most useful belongings had been effectively sorted, overcoming challenges along with positivity and dedication, and embodying Cathay’s ‘can-do’ values. I’m immensely pleased with their unbelievable efforts as we reunite our final plane from the desert with the remainder of our fleet and shut a very exceptional chapter in Cathay’s historical past.

“With our fleet now totally reunited, our focus is firmly on investing for the long run. The Cathay Group has greater than 70 new plane on order, with the fitting to accumulate an extra 52 plane sooner or later. We’re additionally exploring choices for a brand new mid-size widebody plane. These investments replicate our ongoing confidence within the Hong Kong worldwide aviation hub as we stay up for the thrilling alternatives introduced by the Three-Runway System at Hong Kong Worldwide Airport when it’s totally commissioned by the tip of this 12 months.”

Basic Supervisor Engineering Operations Bob Taylor stated: “An plane that’s in long-term parking requires an outlined programme of upkeep checks and inspections which can be repeated over an everyday cycle to make sure it’s preserved in tip-top situation. With regards to reactivating the plane, a rigorous collection of checks and inspections should first be achieved to make sure the plane is secure to ferry again from its abroad parking facility. The plane then must bear an extra collection of detailed checks and inspections as a part of its scheduled hangar upkeep verify.”

Every plane that was long-term parked in Alice Springs underwent a 14-day preservation verify when it first arrived that was then adopted by a repeating collection of periodic inspections and checks. Over the course of the parking programme in Alice Springs, greater than 16,000 of those periodic checks had been carried out, and a complete of 800,000 labour hours had been spent performing preservation, periodic and reactivation upkeep.

Moreover, over 40,000 components and objects of specialized gear had been additionally shipped from Hong Kong to assist the Alice Springs operation. In the meantime, the Cathay Group’s onsite High quality Assurance staff performed greater than 2,000 audits.

Bob Taylor added: “It was actually a staff effort that required the assist of many departments throughout the airline in addition to key companions together with Hong Kong Plane Engineering Firm (HAECO), Boeing and Airbus, and the native service supplier in Alice Springs, Asia Pacific Plane Storage (APAS). To handle this physique of labor throughout an unprecedented variety of plane was an unbelievable achievement by the staff, of which I’m immensely proud.”

Launch ID: 89132496

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