China Hong Kong). Cathay Pacific today released passenger traffic figures for November 2022, showing encouraging signs of recovery for Cathay Pacific and its Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) base.
The airline has carried 526,827 Passenger increase last month+652.1% compared to November 2021. Compared to pre-pandemic levels in the same month in 2019, the figure is down -79.9%.
Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Lam Shaobo said: “We continue to see positive signs in the travel business. Sentiment and demand for outbound travel continued to improve in November.
Bounce back: Cathay Pacific’s long-term return to pre-pandemic passenger numbers is gaining momentum as Hong Kong further opens up to travel (image courtesy of Cathay Pacific)
“We have also seen an increase in the number of people visiting family and friends (VFR) in Hong Kong, especially from long-haul routes such as North America, Europe and the Southwest Pacific. Transit traffic through our Hong Kong hub has also increased as we develop our network of destinations. improve.”
Lam noted that Cathay Pacific — which reportedly opened its first store in central Hong Kong earlier this month — carried out 17,600 Passengers per day in November, from approx. 13,000 in October.
“We continued to add flights to more destinations last month, especially to and from popular areas in Japan and Southeast Asia, with Hong Kong in high demand,” he added.
Japan was the top destination in terms of passenger numbers in November, as load factors on these flights remained high at 86%. Passenger flights to Denpasar (Bali), Tokyo (Haneda) and Zurich also resumed in November.
Cathay Pacific also welcomes the latest measures announced yesterday by the HKSAR government to facilitate travel to Hong Kong. In particular, the airline was encouraged by its decision to remove the Amber code restriction on arrivals entering Hong Kong under the Vaccine Pass, which came into effect today.
It said the adjustments would help to further boost travel sentiment, especially among inbound passengers, thereby helping to revive tourism activity and strengthen network connectivity at Hong Kong International Airport.
Lim said: “As the Christmas and New Year holidays approach, travel demand continues to improve. We are further increasing our passenger flight capacity and resuming more destinations, including Sapporo, Fukuoka, Penang and Dhaka in December, and Phuket and Nagoya next January.”
“We expect short-haul routes to leisure destinations such as Japan and Southeast Asia to remain strong and continue into the Lunar New Year holiday peak,” he added.
