New commitments in carbon neutrality and diversity, and supporting the Hong Kong community during the pandemic

The Cathay Pacific Group has released its annual Sustainable Development Report that addresses its commitment and progress in the areas of environmental, social and governance, which are of great importance to its stakeholders, and towards its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

Chief Executive Officer Augustus Tang said: “I am pleased to share our 2021 Sustainable Development Report, which sets out the specific progress we made last year towards our priority sustainability issues and being a good corporate citizen as the world tackled the COVID-19 pandemic. This included supporting our communities during this global health crisis, and making new commitments towards greater diversity in our workforce and the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in our operations. 

“As our industry makes a gradual recovery from the impact of COVID-19, the transition to low-carbon transport and towards sustainable aviation has reached a tipping point. Building on the carbon-neutral pledge we have made, we announced in 2021 our target of 10% SAF use for flights operated by Cathay Pacific by 2030. We also developed Asia’s first major Corporate SAF Programme in 2021, which came to fruition last month with the launch of its pilot phase, bringing SAF into Hong Kong International Airport for uplift for the very first time. Together with our partners and corporate customers, we will continue to connect Hong Kong to the world in sustainable ways as recovery accelerates.” 

Some highlights from the 2021 report include:

• Helping to deliver vaccinations around the world: We raced against time to develop a dedicated Vaccine Solution to make COVID-19 vaccines available to global communities. In 2021, over 165 million vaccine doses along with other essential medical supplies were delivered to Hong Kong and beyond by our airlines. 

• Making progress towards carbon neutrality: We became one of the first airlines in Asia to target 10% SAF use by 2030 and have committed to purchasing more than 350 million gallons of SAF beginning from 2024 alongside our oneworld Alliance peers. We also co-founded the Aviation Climate Taskforce, an industry platform through which we will accelerate the development of breakthrough technologies that will help drive the decarbonisation of civil aviation. 

• Strong commitment to diversity: We have pledged to increase female representation at senior positions by 25% – reaching 30% in total – by 2025. To drive changes, a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Steering Committee and a dedicated team were set up in 2021. 

Full details of our performance and commitment in sustainable development are available in our 2021 Sustainable Development Report, available here.  

To read more about Cathay Pacific’s Sustainable Development commitments, please click here. For more information about our Corporate SAF Programme, please click here.