Cathay Pacific airline’s positive momentum at the start of the year continued and a number of exciting new developments were introduced in its cargo business.
Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,114,727 passengers last month, an increase of 3,467% compared with February 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 4,720% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 38.6 percentage points to 86.2%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 2,562% year-on-year. In the first two months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 3,737% against a 2,071% increase in capacity and a 4,227% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
The airline carried 103,932 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 59.6% compared with February 2022, when our cargo capacity was significantly reduced due to stricter aircrew quarantine measures. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 153.9% year-on-year. The cargo load factor decreased by 13.7 percentage points to 66.7%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), increased by 206.1% year-on-year. In the first two months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 42.8% against a 201.3% increase in capacity and a 147.4% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
Travel
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “We are pleased to see that our positive start to 2023 continued in February. Passenger numbers further improved after the Lunar New Year holidays; we carried more than 1.1 million passengers last month averaging almost 40,000 per day. We continued to add more flights and destinations, with February seeing passenger flight capacity increase about 6% month-on-month as well as the resumption of our Wenzhou flights.
“Travel demand overall remained strong across our network, especially traffic to and from the Chinese Mainland via the Hong Kong hub. We also saw strong demand on our Taipei and Kaohsiung routes in the last week of February after the lifting of all travel restrictions on Hong Kong and Macau residents. We are pleased to see that demand is also growing for premium travel for both business and leisure purposes.
