Cathay Pacific Seeks Guidelines About Potential Radiation in Airspace

Hong Kong — As concern over Japan’s nuclear crisis grows, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK) is seeking guidelines to deal with radioactive materials that might enter airspace.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest carrier, increased flight frequencies to and from Japan to meet travellers’ demands in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the northeast of the country.

Spokesperson Thomas Liu said Cathay Pacific was preparing for the worst situation, but has not taken any action.

“Right now, there has not been situation about radiation-affected passengers, aircraft crews, or airspace, but we are still working with the civil aviation authorities to stay alerted of what may happen in the future,” he said.

Cathay Pacific communications manager Maria Yu said the airline would refer to international practices should the situation worsen but there was no need at the moment.

“Cathay’s airspace is all clear and very safe to travel,” said Yu. “The degree of radioactive contamination should  depend on the number of people .. affected, and may not be related to the seats or other parts of the aircraft.”

Aircraft engineer Johnny Chung told the South China Morning Post that radioactive substances would have dissipated and would cause little harm at 30,000 to 40,000 feet up.

On March 20, the airline flew the last of its extra evacuation flights and ended temporary capacity increases on Tokyo routes.

The Standard quoted the airline as saying that seat occupancy of trips to Japan was declining, while travel in the opposite direction was “persistently high”, and that most of the passengers were returning Japanese.

Cathay Pacific’s website offered a special one-way fare, from Japan to Hong Kong, at HK$5,755 until March 27.

Passengers holding tickets issued on or before March 11 with departures to and from Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Okinawa, for travel between March 11 and June 30 will be eligible for a refund. Its sister airline Dragonair also said those with tickets to and from Fukuoka and Okinawa for travel between March 11 and June 30 could also get refunds.