A Hong Kong Express Airways aircraft taxis past another aircraft operated by the airline at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, March 5, 2019. (PAUL YEUNG / BLOOMBERG)

HONG KONG - Airline HK Express, Cathay Pacific’s budget airline, said on Friday it will suspend all flight operations from March 23 until April 30 because of a significant drop in travel demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

READ MORE: Crisis-hit Cathay says 25,000 staff to take unpaid leave

Given all the challenges we have been facing, preserving our cash position is key to make sure we stay together as team

Mandy Ng, HK Express CEO

“Given all the challenges we have been facing, preserving our cash position is key to make sure we stay together as team,” CEO Mandy Ng said.

According to a notice posted on the airline's website on Friday, affected passengers may change the date of the flight for free, fly a different destination after paying the fare difference or request for a refund.

The airline is looking into resuming flight operations on May 1 and closely monitoring the development of the situation, it said.

HK Express has already cancelled about 2,000 flight sectors, covering 23 out of 25 routes across Asia. Some 96 percent of its staff is participating in a special no-pay leave scheme. 

Cathay scraps 96% of flights 

Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, slashed passenger capacity by 96 percent in April and May as the coronavirus shuts down travel across the world.

Cathay Pacific will operate three flights per week to 12 destinations: London, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Tokyo, Taipei, New Delhi, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore and Sydney. Cathay Dragon will operate three flights a week to Beijing, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur.

We need to take difficult but decisive measures as the scale of the challenge facing the global aviation industry is unprecedented. Travel restrictions are making it increasingly difficult for our customers to travel and demand has dropped drastically

Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific's Chief Customer and Commercial Officer 

“We need to take difficult but decisive measures as the scale of the challenge facing the global aviation industry is unprecedented,” Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said in a statement. “Travel restrictions are making it increasingly difficult for our customers to travel and demand has dropped drastically.”

The virus has floored Cathay, which was already reeling from the impact violent protests in Hong Kong had on visitor numbers for much of last year. The airline has already asked staff to take unpaid leave and warned that it faces a substantial loss in the first half of this year, with a HK$2 billion loss in February alone. It also said it would operate a “bare skeleton” schedule for passenger flights in the coming months.

ALSO READ: Airlines slash schedules, jobs & pay after new travel curbs

“Our ability to maintain even this skeleton schedule will depend on whether more travel restrictions are imposed by governments around the world which will further dampen passenger demand,” the company said in its statement Friday.

On some days in February, Cathay flight bookings fell to as low as 11,000-12,000 from the standard 90,000, Lam said earlier this month. Passenger load factor declined to about 50 percent at the end of February -- about a month after airlines began cutting operations because of the coronavirus -- and year-on-year yield fell significantly.

Sophie He contributed to this report