Cathay Pacific Airways is to cut 8500 jobs, or about 24 per cent of its workforce, and shut a regional airline as it grapples with the plunge in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
About 5300 employees based in Hong Kong and another 600 elsewhere will likely lose their jobs.
A further 2600 unfilled positions would also be cut, the Hong Kong airline said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company will also shut down Cathay Dragon, its regional airline unit, with operations ceasing from Wednesday.
It will seek regulatory approval for most of the routes to be operated by Cathay Pacific and its budget airlines subsidiary HK Express.
The restructuring is aimed at reducing Cathay Pacific's cash burn to 500 million Hong Kong dollars ($A91 million) a month, from about 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars to 2 billion Hong Kong dollars currently, Cathay Pacific CEO Augustus Tang said.
"The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the group to survive," Mr Tang said in a statement.
"We have to do this to protect as many jobs as possible and meet our responsibilities to the Hong Kong aviation hub and our customers."
The restructuring plan will cost about 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Executive pay cuts will continue throughout 2021 and there will be no pay increments or bonuses for 2021 for all Hong Kong employees.
Australian Associated Press
