Cathay Pacific posted strong traffic growth in November, supported by Hong Kong’s continued reopening after emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.
According to its traffic results, Cathay Pacific carried 527,000 passengers in November, a sevenfold increase from the same month last year. While that marks a notable jump, it’s still 80% below its pre-pandemic level in November 2019.
RPKs are up sixfold from a year ago as ASKs doubled. Cathay Pacific’s passenger load factor increased significantly, up 51.7 percentage points to 78.5%.
“We continue to see positive signs in the travel business,” said chief customer officer Ronald Lam.
“Sentiment and demand for outbound travel continued to improve in November. We also saw an increase in the number of people visiting family and friends in Hong Kong, especially from long-haul routes such as North America, Europe and the Southwest Pacific. As we develop our network of destinations, Transit traffic through the Hong Kong hub has also improved.”
However, Cathay Pacific’s November cargo volume fell 23.8% YoY, and its load factor dropped 15.6 percentage points to 66.9%. Freight capacity, as measured by AFTKs, was down 11% year-on-year.
“Production activities and trade flows in mainland China remain restricted,” said Lim of Cathay Pacific Cargo Performance.
“While we did witness a slight uptick in e-commerce activity into the Americas during the Black Friday shopping period, similar regional increases were more fleeting. Conversely, the movement of perishable goods from South America and Australia and New Zealand was relatively buoyant.”
On the outlook, Cathay Pacific said travel sentiment was boosted by the easing of travel restrictions in Hong Kong. With the Lunar New Year holiday approaching in late January 2023, Lam expects demand to continue to improve.
