Cathay Pacific chairman Patrick Healy does not think Hong Kong’s future as an international hub will be diminished by the “extremely challenging operating conditions” it currently faces. “The start of [2022] is even tougher than the last. The emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has led to the tightest restrictions that Hong Kong has implemented today,” Healy said during a 9 March press briefing on Cathay’s 2021 full-year results. He stresses: “[None] of this fundamentally alters the fact of Hong Kong’s future as an international city and aviation hub. The future long-term outlook for Hong Kong as an international aviation hub and Cathay Pacific’s role at the centre of that remains fundamentally unchanged. “Although I wouldn’t want to downplay the difficulties and operational challenges associated with the current situation, the fact remains that these are fundamentally short-term in nature and don’t change our full confidence in the long-term future of Hong Kong as a place to do business and as an aviation hub.” As a group, Cathay reported an operating loss of HK$1.4 billion ($179 million) for 2021, a significant improvement on its HK$18 billion loss a year ago. The group’s revenue declined 3% year on year, to HK$45.6 billion. Passenger revenue fell 64% to HK$4.4 billion but cargo revenue rose 28% to HK$35.8 billion. Similar to its late-January update, Cathay expects the current restrictions will result in a cash burn of HK$1-1.5 billion per month from February, reversing its marginally cash-generative second half of 2021. The airline’s liquidity balance at the end of 2021 stood at HK$30.3 billion, versus HK$28.6 billion at the end of 2020. Cathay attributes its ability to maintain a “stable level of liquidity over such a turbulent period” to its strong second-half performance and two bond issues in the first half of 2021. The Hong Kong government has also extended the drawdown period of a HK$7.8 billion loan facility to June. “Our strong liquidity position gives us great confidence that we can overcome the ongoing challenges and emerge from this crisis as a more efficient and competitive airline than we were before,” Healy says. Given the current restrictions, Cathay says it is “trying [its] best to maintain passenger and cargo networks as far as possible and will try to increase cargo capacity as much as practicable”. The airline expects to operate at about 2% of passenger flight capacity and “less than one-third” of cargo flight capacity against 2019 levels as long as the tightened crew quarantine requirements and flight bans to key markets remain in place. Asked to provide an update on Cathay’s Boeing 777-9 orders, chief operations and service delivery officer Greg Hughes said the airline was “absolutely committed to the Boeing 777-9 programme”. The airline has 21 777-9s on order and expects deliveries to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025 and run through 2028.

Members of Delta Air Lines’ pilots' union plan on 10 March to picket outside of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport to demand that the airline provide more convenient schedules for flight crews, the Air Line Pilots Association states. The ALPA pilots’ union says its members will protest “Delta management’s scheduling practices that have caused pilots to fly long and often fatiguing trips”. That picket will not disrupt the airline’s operations at its Atlanta hub, Delta says. “All of our pilot schedules meet or exceed safety requirements set by [the US Federal Aviation Administration] as well as those outlined in our pilot contract,” Delta says. “As we continue to deliver industry leading operational reliability and recover our network, we are also balancing ways to improve schedules for our pilots. All of our people, including our pilots, are working hard to restore our airline and deliver for our customers as we emerge from the pandemic. We are grateful for and proud of their efforts.” Pilots at the Atlanta-based mainline since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have flown “record amounts of overtime”, ALPA says, asking for management to address scheduling concerns. “Delta is trying to operate more flights with fewer pilots, leaving no wiggle room for weather delays and operational strains,” the union says. “We are spending more time away from home than ever to ensure that we can operate a reliable schedule for Delta customers.” The recovery of domestic US travel has coincided with staff shortages and record-high passenger violence directed at flight crews, driving labour unions to call for better conditions and benefits, including more flexible flight schedules. Pilots are in high demand as airlines compete to recruit new flight crews amid a domestic US travel recovery, potentially increasing the bargaining power of unions. Addressing the push to hire and recall pilots during an earnings call on 13 January, Delta chief executive Ed Bastian said “we are not having any problem at all at Delta hiring and getting great pools of candidates”. “That’s viewed as the premium airline that employees, in general, but particularly pilots, want to come work for, which we’re thrilled at,” Bastian said of Delta. Scheduling practices have also caused dissent at American Airlines among members of its Allied Pilots Association union. That union’s spokesman Dennis Tajer said in November 2021 that a “convergence of dysfunctional scheduling practices” complicated American’s efforts to minimise cancellations during 2021. A lack of scheduling flexibility for American’s pilots, Tajer said, deterred them from offering to fly more shifts when they had free time or were offered extra pay.

US president Joseph Biden on 8 March announced he will sign an executive order to ban oil imports from Russia following weeks of bipartisan discussions with Congress as the nation seeks new ways to economically pressure Moscow to halt the invasion of Ukraine. The move adds pressure to the already rising price of aviation fuel as carriers and airframers adapt to supply chain challenges of both the Covid-19 pandemic and the global effort to economically isolate Russia's leader Vladimir Putin. The US ban is expected to accelerate the rise of energy prices, and trade group IATA reports that as of 4 March the price of jet fuel rose 27.5% during the previous week, ending just below $142 per barrel. Biden's executive order bans US imports of Russian crude oil, certain petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and coal. "That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports, and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine," Biden said on 8 March. The executive order also bans new US investments in Russia’s energy sector, the White House says, adding that “Americans will also be prohibited from financing or enabling foreign companies that are making investments to produce energy in Russia”. European governments may not be economically able to impose the same ban because they are more dependent on Russian energy compared with the USA. "We’re working closely with Europe and our partners to develop a long-term strategy to reduce their dependence on Russian energy as well," Biden says. While the USA has greater energy independence due to its natural resources, the nation during 2021 “imported nearly 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia” worth billions of dollars, a White House official said on 8 March during a call with reporters. Europe imports six times more oil from Russia compared with the USA, having imported around 4.5 million barrels per day during 2021, the White House says. While European nations are unlikely to join the ban, the rise in fuel prices will add pressure for airlines to pass costs to consumers by raising rates, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson tell, following other expenses incurred due to the pandemic. "US airlines won't be able to raise fares and fly the same amount of capacity, so they have a choice," Ferguson says. "[Either] keep fares low, make little to no profit, but get closer to 2019 capacity levels, or raise fares and cut capacity to try to achieve more profit." Rising energy prices means less discretionary income for consumers, he adds, which could also damage demand for travel. Airlines that raise rates or exit routes could also risk losing business to low-cost carriers, he says. Fuel cost is the second-largest expense for airlines, Cowen analyst Helane Becker states on 8 March in a research note, while labour cost is the largest expense. The pandemic has increased pressure for both airlines and airports to increase pay and benefits to rebuild staffing levels, so rising fuel costs represent "a significant headwind to airline earnings" she adds. "It usually takes around four months for increased fuel costs to become priced into fares and result in higher yields," she says. "At high enough costs, jet fuel may force airlines to limit their future growth and capacity, resulting in higher load factors along with increased fare prices." Despite the impact of the Ukraine crisis, she adds "it would not be surprising to see a repeat of 2008 when a rapid rise in fuel prices was followed by an equally rapid fall". The White House aims to minimise the impact of its energy ban, including the previously announced plan to release more than 90 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during 2022. Oil production in the USA during 2021 surpassed 2017 levels, Biden says, insisting that the USA will continue producing fossil fuels while preparing the economy to transition to cleaner forms of energy. That gradual process, he adds, is aimed at lowering energy prices while both mitigating the damage of climate change and preventing Putin and other “tyrants” from “using fossil fuels as weapons against other nations”.