The Hong-Kong based airline Cathay Pacific is to cut one-thousand jobs over the next twelve months in a bid to reduce costs.

The airline -- which employs about fifteen thousand people -- hopes the move will save more than sixty-million dollars per year.

Airline officials say the cuts will be mostly in commercial departments.

Correspondents say Cathay Pacific has been hitby falling profits since the Hong Kong handover, and passenger numbers have declined.

The company has already laid off eight-hundred-and-seventy employees this year.