Cathay Pacific Airways General Manager Airports Rick Lang today hosted a media briefing in Hong Kong to lay out the airline`s strategy for new ground products and procedures to enhance passengers` total travel experience. These have included new First and Business Class lounges in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and soon Taipei, automatic CXpress multi-purpose kiosks to allow passengers to complete their own ticketing and check-in arrangements in airports, and new cabin baggage procedures to promote safety, security and speed on all flights.

Rick Lang said: “Despite the difficult economic climate Cathay Pacific has committed to maintaining the momentum of its product enhancements. Our newest lounge, The Pier, is getting great comments from passengers, and we will be opening a brand new lounge in Taipei next week. We know that this year will be tough for all airlines, but as competition in the market intensifies it is more important than ever for us to offer a premium product - which means product enhancements, and not cutbacks.”

The Pier offers a number of new features including a Juice Bar, exclusive Day-Break Rooms, three bars and two restaurants, 60 broadband-connected computers and a wireless LAN for connecting with laptop computers. The Pier is Cathay Pacific`s second lounge in Hong Kong. Its first lounge, The Wing, was recently named first in a Forbes magazine list of The World`s Ten Best Airport Lounges.

Following a recent safety and security review by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, all members have also agreed to implement uniform rules on the allowable size and weight of cabin baggage. As a signatory to the agreement, Cathay Pacific will begin the new policy from 1st April 2002 across its entire network.

In the interests of safety, security and speed the maximum weight of cabin baggage for each passenger will be set at 7 kilograms. A laptop computer and a camera and certain other small personal items will be allowed in addition to this limit. While this actually represents a slight increase in allowance for most passengers, the new limit will be carefully enforced to reduce the chances of injuries to passengers and cabin crew from excessive cabin baggage, and ensure speedier boarding and security procedures and better access to their bags on board, for all passengers.

Cathay Pacific recently launched CXpress multi-purpose kiosks at two airports to allow passengers to collect tickets, select seats and check themselves in, and collect boarding passes and lounge invitations. Passengers who have already checked in online through the airline`s Website can also use the new kiosk to collect their boarding passes thus completing the regular airport process in cyberspace. Other e-services for passengers include the expansion of the notiFLY Flight Paging service to offer its SMS text updates to mobile phone at every destination that Cathay Pacific flies to.
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