Cathay Pacific has accidentally given passengers first-class airline tickets at economy prices – for the second time in a fortnight.

The Hong Kong-based carrier sold first-class tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong, which normally cost about £12,500, for only £1,175 because of an error on its website.

The airline said it would honour the tickets, which were sold on Sunday. The flights are from Lisbon to Hong Kong via London. A flight departing early in the morning was listed for $16,000 (£12,450) but taking the same route at midday cost only $1,512 (£1,175).

Cathay Pacific error sees $16,000 flights sold for $675 Read more

A Cathay spokeswoman said a “very small number” of customers had been able to buy the fares at the vastly discounted prices and it looked “forward to welcoming you in board to enjoy our premium services”. The airline said it stopped sales as soon as the error was highlighted by the South China Morning Post journalist Danny Lee, who did not buy a ticket himself.

The airline said it was urgently “looking into the root cause of this incident both internally and externally with our vendors”. It comes less than two weeks after a similar error allowed people to buy business and first-class tickets from Vietnam to New York for $675 (£534), rather than the standard $16,000.

The airline also promised to honour that error. “Happy 2019 all, and to those who bought our good – VERY good surprise ‘special’ on New Year’s Day,” the airline tweeted. “Yes – we made a mistake, but we look forward to welcoming you onboard with your ticket issued. Hope this will make your 2019 ‘special’ too!”