Air Transport

Cathay Pacific Airways is reducing the number of business-class seats on its 12 Boeing 777-300s and replacing these with economy seats.

The carrier says the move is not because of low demand, but to bring the number of business-class seats in line with that on its other aircraft.

The airline's 777-300s have 59 business-class seats each. Fourteen of these will be replaced with 27 economy seats, it says. As a result, the aircraft will have 353 economy seats instead of 326, it adds.

Cathay operates the 777-300s on regional routes such as Taipei and Bangkok.

"Fifty-nine was simply too many business seats for the regional services. All other aircraft types (330s and 777-200s) have 45 or 46, so moving to 45 makes sense in terms of matching capacity and demand," says a Cathay spokeswoman.

She adds that the Oneworld carrier has started the reconfiguration programme, and expects to complete it by year-end.

Cathay has no plans to reduce business-class seats on its 11 777-300ERs or its other aircraft, says the spokeswoman.