Reporting a 22 per cent decline in turnover for the first quarter of 2009, year-on-year, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said Thursday that it will cut capacity and ask its staff to take unpaid leave over the course of the next twelve months. The carrier said that from May 2009, overall planned cargo capacity will be reduced by 11 per cent while passenger capacity at Cathay Pacific will be reduced by 8 per cent and at subsidiary Dragonair by 13 per cent. The company also said it is requesting its staff to take unpaid leave over the course of the next 12 months. Cathay Pacific noted that in the first quarter of 2009, turnover from passenger and cargo services of Cathay Pacific and Dragonair was down 22.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier.