Today's Jakarta-Hong Kong flights on schedule

JAKARTA (JP): Cathay Pacific said there would be no delay in its Jakarta-Hong Kong service on Tuesday despite the cancellation of its Indonesian flights on Monday.

The airline's marketing communications manager for Jakarta, Ida Bayuni, said on Monday the Jakarta-Hong Kong flights for Tuesday were on schedule.

However, she said flights for the rest of the week were still uncertain.

"We will inform you about our other flights, including Wednesday and Friday's CX776 and CX777 services, as soon as we have confirmation," she told The Jakarta Post.

Since Friday, Cathay has canceled dozens of flights worldwide after a number of pilots failed to show up for work, claiming to be too sick to fly.

The action is assumed to be related to an ongoing wage dispute, which first sparked when the airline told about half of its 1,300 pilots to either accept salary cuts of up to 22 percent in return for stock options in the company, early retirement or face dismissal.

Cathay canceled 33 flights on Monday, including flights CX777, CX776, CX785 and CX784 connecting Jakarta and Denpasar to Hong Kong.

The airline is scheduled Tuesday to fly to Hong Kong from Jakarta and Denpasar.

From Denpasar, a staff member at the airline's reservation office told the Post that confirmation of the status of Tuesday's flights could only be given to would-be passengers on Tuesday morning.

"Flights from Denpasar to Hong Kong have been canceled since Saturday. Sorry, I cannot give you the number of passengers affected by the cancellations," the staff member, who asked for anonymity, said.

She said passengers had been transferred to other airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Thai Airlines, without additional charge.

According to Ida, the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has arranged additional flights with six airlines to handle stranded passengers flying out of Hong Kong.

About 400 passengers were left stranded in Hong Kong on Sunday due to the limited number of Cathay flights and other airlines' inability to absorb stranded passengers.

"Together, they (additional flights) provide additional capacity of around 3,000 seats," she said.

"We will continue to work with other airlines to provide extra seats for our passengers to minimize any disruptions," Ida said. (cst)