Cathay Pacific will cut the number of flights to North America by 10 per week in an attempt to offset the impact of soaring fuel prices.

In its second wave of redeployments since July, the airline also announced on Aug. 11 that it would increase the weekly number of flights to Australia by eight to meet a strong demand and upgrade two existing services to London and Amsterdam with 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 in our interim results last week," said Cathay chief executive Tony Tyler. "We have to maximize our earnings during this difficult period - which is why we are moving our capacity."

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