HONG KONG, 17 July 2023: Cathay Pacific reached a new milestone for passengers carried in a single day since the pandemic as it continues to make good progress in rebuilding connectivity at the Hong Kong international aviation hub, the airline reported in its traffic figures for June 2023
Cathay Pacific carried 1,548,571 passengers last month, an increase of 931.9% compared with June 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 527.9% yearly. Passenger load factor increased by 20.7 percentage points to 87.7%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 379.6% year on year. In the first six months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 2,230% against a 1,111% increase in capacity and a 1,685% increase in RPKs, compared with the same period for 2022.
The airline carried 111,210 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 6.4% compared with June 2022. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 16.3% yearly. The cargo load factor decreased by 6.7 percentage points to 61.7%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), increased by 29% yearly. In the first six months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 23.8% against a 117.6% increase in capacity and an 83% increase in RFTKs, compared to the same period for 2022.
Travel
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “Our travel business continued to perform well in June. We reached a new milestone on 25 June when we surpassed the 60,000 mark for passengers carried in a single day for the first time since the pandemic. We continued to increase our capacity and frequencies to cater for the strong travel demand.
“Long-haul routes popular for student traffic, such as North America, the UK and Australasia, all saw good demand, with load factors on flights to Hong Kong averaging about 90%. As a result, the overall passenger load factor was very high in June at 87.7%.”
Outlook
“Turning to July and August, on the travel side, the outlook is encouraging. As we continue adding more flights, we are also reopening our lounges for our premium passengers. We reopened our Vancouver lounge in June, and our fifth and final lounge in Hong Kong, The Pier, First, will follow next week. Customers can also expect to experience our Taipei and San Francisco lounges again shortly.
“Although cargo demand is expected to remain flat throughout the summer, we are already preparing for demand to pick up in the latter part of the third quarter. The additional capacity will be operated on our key transpacific routes to cater for this.”
