Cathay Pacific has warned that its August revenue figures could take a hit, thanks to ongoing anti-government protests that culminated in two consecutive airport closures. Cathay’s newly-minted chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam notes that even though “recent events” did not “substantially impact” the business in July, the airline is bracing for the effects in the coming month. “However, we anticipate a much more significant impact to our revenue in August and onwards,” says Lam in a media release on the carrier’s July traffic figures. He adds that traffic into Hong Kong for the month has softened, and that the carrier has noticed that traffic out of the city, particularly to points in its short-haul network of China, Taiwan, South-east Asia and South Korea, is gradually weakening as well. On 12 and 13 August, Hong Kong International Airport was shut down completely, after protestors occupied large sections of the airport. All flights had to be cancelled, and Cathay, together with its subsidiaries Cathay Dragon and HK Express, bore the brunt of flight cancellations.

Source: FlightGlobal

A runway excursion involving a Mandarin Airlines ATR 72-600 in Taiwan on 22 August 2018 was due largely to the flight crew’s non-compliance with operating procedures. The aircraft, registered B-16852, was operating flight AE788 from Magong Airport (now known as Penghu Airport) to Taichung Airport, when it veered off the runway during a rainy landing.
The excursion, which took place at about 19:28 local time, damaged the underside of the fuselage and three runway lights. No injuries were recorded among the 70 passengers and four crew. Investigations by the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board indicate that the flight crew had failed to follow Mandarin Airlines’ flight operations manual for landing. In its final investigation report, it found that during approach, the 42-year-old first officer took control of the turboprop, even though the visibility at that time did not meet the prescribed minimum for first officers. The first officer disengaged autopilot at about 19:27 at an altitude of 240ft. At this moment they observed that the rain intensify, and had sighted the runway. The 60-year-old captain then told his first officer that the aircraft’s approach was deviating to the left. The first officer tried to use the rudder to guide the aircraft back to the centre line, but investigations indicate that he was unable to do so, with visibility affected by the heavier downpour. When the aircraft landed it was still angled to the left. Only then did the captain take control. It was, however, too late, and the ATR 72 veered off the runway.

Source: FlightGlobal

Russia's federal air transport regulator is seeking information to verify that adequate bird-control measures are in place at the airport following the accident involving a Ural Airlines Airbus A321 at Moscow Zhukovsky. Rosaviatsia has disclosed that another Ural A321 (VQ-BOB) suffered a bird-strike – including impacts to the left-hand engine inlet – while landing at Zhukovsky on 8 August, one week before the cornfield landing of VQ-BOZ which apparently lost power in both engines after a strike on take-off. While the earlier incident did not result in any problems with the engines or other aircraft systems, Rosaviatsia points out that 50 notable incidents have occurred so far this year relating to bird-strikes – on top of a further 823 in which no damage occurred.

Source: FlightGlobal