Cathay Pacific on Friday (Jan 20) released its traffic figures for December 2022 together with an update on its performance in the year ended 31 December 2022, which saw a marked improvement in the second-half results of the Group’s airlines and subsidiaries over the first-half results. Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, the Group will continue on the path to rebuilding its airlines and the Hong Kong international aviation hub.
December 2022 traffic figures
Cathay Pacific carried a total of 801,088 passengers last month, an increase of 768.7% compared with December 2021, but a 73.3% decrease compared with the pre-pandemic level in December 2019. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 545.2% year-on-year but were down 68.4% versus December 2019. Passenger load factor increased by 46.7 percentage points to 83.3%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 183.5% year-on-year, but decreased by 67.8% compared with December 2019 levels. In the full year of 2022, the number of passengers carried increased by 291% against a 51.6% increase in capacity and a 258.3% increase in RPKs, as compared with 2021.
Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam said: “December saw a drastic uptick in travel demand with Christmas being the first major holiday since travel restrictions in Hong Kong were lifted, although we were still only operating about 32% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels. We carried over 25,800 passengers per day on average.
“Demand was overwhelming for travel to short-haul leisure destinations as we continued to ramp up our frequencies. We also added more destinations in December, including Sapporo, Fukuoka, Penang and Dhaka, ending the year with close to 60 destinations in our network – double the 29 we flew to in January 2022.”
The airline carried 106,471 tonnes of cargo last month, a decrease of 21% compared with December 2021, and a 40% decrease compared with the same period in 2019. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 22.6% year-on-year and were down 34% compared with December 2019. The cargo load factor decreased by 16.9 percentage points to 67.3%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), decreased by 3.2% year-on-year, and was down by 35% versus December 2019. In the full year of 2022, the tonnage decreased by 13.4% against a 19% decrease in capacity and a 29.8% decrease in RFTKs, as compared with 2021.
Mr Lam said: “In terms of cargo, overall market demand continued to be flat in December, as was the case for the fourth quarter. Tonnage saw a mild month-on-month increase of 3% against a 4% increase in cargo flight capacity. Overall in December, we operated 65% of pre-pandemic cargo flight capacity levels.
Full-year 2022 financial performance
Based on a preliminary review of the unaudited consolidated management accounts of the Cathay Pacific Group for the year ended 31 December 2022 and the information currently available to the Board of Directors of Cathay Pacific, the Group is expected to record a consolidated loss attributable to shareholders of approximately HK$6.4-7.0 billion. This compares to the attributable loss to shareholders of HK$5.5 billion for the year ended 31 December 2021.
The second-half 2022 results for the Group’s airlines and subsidiaries were a marked improvement over the first-half 2022 results, although still a small loss overall for the full year of 2022. However, the results from associates, the majority of which are recognised as three months in arrears, and which in some cases have already been announced, including significant losses.
Mr Lam said: “I am very encouraged to see a trend of continuous improvement in our operations and financial performance for our airlines and subsidiaries in the second half of 2022. Progressive relaxations to travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Hong Kong enabled us to be operating cash generative overall in the second half of 2022.”
