Cathay Pacific on Wednesday reported losses had narrowed in the first half after an "extremely difficult start" to the year. The US$637 million loss in January-June was narrower than the US$968 million deficit suffered in the same period last year, as the airline benefited from strong cargo demand and cost-cutting measures.

Cathay chairman Patrick Healy said the airline aiming to boost passenger flight capacity to a quarter of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022, while it is looking to lift cargo capacity to 65 percent.

The airline carried 335,000 passengers in the first half of the year, more than double that of the same period in 2021, bringing in US$263 million in revenue. Income from the cargo unit jumped 9.3 percent to US$1.5 billion.

Total revenue was up 17 percent on year at US$2.4 billion.

Healy added that the airline was gearing up for borders reopening and expected a stronger second half.

Cathay is bringing aircraft parked overseas back to Hong Kong and is aiming to hire more than 4,000 front-line employees over the next 18 to 24 months, Healey said.

The firm's ability to operate more flights "continues to be severely constrained by a bottleneck on crewing resources under the existing quarantine requirements", Healey said on Wednesday.

He said that the group will only be able to provide more capacity when the existing stringent travel restrictions and quarantine requirements for the crew in Hong Kong are relaxed.

The airline operated just 29 destinations in January, compared with more than 100 before the pandemic.