HONG KONG, 18 August 2023: Cathay Pacific released its traffic figures for July 2023 this week, showing that together with HK Express, the Cathay Group as a whole surpassed the milestone of having carried more than two million passengers in a month for the first time since the pandemic.
Cathay Pacific carried 1,744,374 passengers last month, an increase of 693.8% compared with July 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 421.6% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 16 percentage points to 89.3%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 328.2% year on year. In the first seven months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 1,622% against an 818.9% increase in capacity and a 1,149% increase in RPKs, compared with the same period for 2022.
Travel
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau noted: “July marks the beginning of the traditional summer peak for passenger travel, and we are very pleased to see that demand has been strong. We continued to add more capacity for our customers – 11% more compared with June – primarily on our North America, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia services catering to the rising demand for visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and leisure travel.
“Long-haul flights to and from Hong Kong were especially popular among VFR travellers in the first half of the month. Subsequently, with the start of the school holidays in mid-July, there was a substantial increase in demand for popular short-haul destinations around Asia. All this resulted in July having a nearly 90% load factor.
Outlook
“Looking ahead, the strong travel demand seen in July will continue through the rest of the summer, peaking in August said Lau. “We continue to make good progress in our journey to rebuild the Cathay Group and connectivity at our home hub and, as a group comprising Cathay Pacific and HK Express, we are now close to 60% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels.”
The airline group is on track to reach 70% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity covering 80 destinations by the end of this year and forecasts it will reach 100% by the end of 2024.
On the customer experience side, the airline group welcomed guests back to its lounge in Taipei and previewed its all-new Business class experience, Aria Suite, which will arrive on long-haul Boeing 777-300ER flights in the second quarter of next year.
As an additional update following the group’s payment of the HKD1.5 billion deferred dividend on the HKD19.5 billion preference shares held by the Hong Kong SAR Government in June and announcement of its intention to pay all future preference shares dividends as they fall due, the group has paid the latest dividend of HKD292.5 million due on the preference shares on 14 August 2023.
