Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific said Monday it will cut the number of flights to North America by 10 per week in a bid to offset the impact of soaring fuel prices.

In its second wave of redeployment since July, the airline will also increase the weekly number of flights to Australia by eight to meet the strong demand for services to the country, it said in a statement.

The company added that it will also upgrade two existing services to London and Amsterdam, using bigger aircraft.

"The extent of the impact fuel prices are having on our business was underlined when we announced a loss of HK$663-million (U$85-million) in our interim results last week," Tony Tyler, Cathay's chief executive, said in the statement.

The loss for the first half of 2008 compares with a profit of $2.58-billion in the same period last year.

"We have to maximise our earnings during this difficult period — which is why we are moving our capacity," said Tyler.

AFP