Asia's biggest international carrier posted an 82 per cent drop in first-half net income as losses from fuel hedging mounted and passenger yields - the amount earned by carrying a person per kilometre, and a key metric of profitability - slumped to their lowest in seven years. Rising competition from Chinese airlines and capacity constraints at Hong Kong's airport are denting the outlook for Cathay Pacific, according to UBS AG, the top forecaster for the stock over the past year. Cathay Pacific's passenger yield faces a "multi-year" decline, said Eric Lin, a Hong-Kong based analyst at UBS, who predicts the company's shares will fall a further 3 per cent in the next 12 months. "We turned very cautious on Hong Kong as a transit hub since the second half of last year."