Affected bases are in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco

Airline announced closure of Vancouver base last month

Flying just 3% of normal capacity due to demand drop

Adds details of flight cuts, lack of demand

SYDNEY, April 17 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd 0293.HK will close its three cabin crew bases in the United States, the airline said on Friday, laying off 286 staff as the coronavirus pandemic has virtually halted global travel.

The carrier has grounded most of its planes because of the fall in demand, flying only a skeleton network to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver in April and May that represents just 3% of normal capacity.

In a statement, Cathay said it was communicating with the affected crew in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as their union.

Last month it announced the closure of its Vancouver cabin crew base, with 147 crew, as part of a business review.

On Thursday, Cathay said it was exploring all available options to ride out the storm and doing all it could to preserve cash. One day this week, it had carried just 302 passengers, compared to around 100,000 on a typical day.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

((Jamie.Freed@thomsonreuters.com; +61 2 9171 7143;))

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