As for today, we are very close to 90%

Cathay Pacific spokeswoman

Furthermore, it will "look to release more of the 14 remaining chartered aircraft over the coming week".

Services to three destinations - Perth, Hanoi and Penang - will be restored over the weekend but scheduled flights to seven destinations remain disrupted, the company said.

Work to rule continues

The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Association (HKAOA) said on Thursday that limited industrial action would continue but "despite provocation we will not escalate" actions against Cathay Pacific.

It represents more than 85% of the airline's 1,500 pilots who have been working to rule.

The union said in a statement that the "pilots are more united than ever" and that more pilots were joining the union.

Cathay Pacific has sacked 52 pilots since the dispute started at the beginning of July.

The union criticised Cathay for chartering the additional planes, saying it had "spent many millions of dollars unnecessarily".

Cathay passengers faced delays from Typhoon Utor as well as the strike

UBS Warburg analyst Timothy Ross has estimated the cost of the chartered planes at $1.8m each a month.

Hong Kong is a transport hub for East Asia and Cathay Pacific flies about a million passengers a month to and from the territory, one-third of all the traffic and cargo that passes through it.

The dispute has caused delays to hundreds of flights.

Talks between the airline and the pilots broke down at the end of June.

Cathay Pacific said it offered the pilots pay rises of up to 10.5%, but the union wanted pay and benefit rises of up to 32%.

Correspondents say the pilots are angered because at the height of Asia's financial crisis they were made to take pay cuts, then last year Cathay Pacific made record profits.