[ET Net News Agency, 19 June 2018] Cathay Pacific (00293) said the company, and its
wholly owned subsidiary, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Cathay Dragon) carried a total of
2,827,634 passengers last month - a drop of 0.8% compared to May 2017.
The passenger load factor decreased 2.2 percentage points to 82%, while capacity,
measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 2.9%. In the first five months
of 2018, the number of passenger carried grew by 1.4% while capacity increased by 3%.
The two airlines carried 175,074 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of
8.2% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.3
percentage points to 68.6%.
Capacity, measured in available freight tone kilometres (AFTKs), was up by 3.8% while
cargo and mail revenue freight tone kilometres (RFTKs) increased by 7.4%.
In the first five months of 2018, the tonnage rose by 7.9% against a 4.5% increase in
capacity and a 7.7% increase in RFTKs.
"May is traditionally a relatively slack month for leisure travel. Our overall passenger
volume growth was therefore slightly slower than capacity increases. However, we saw good
growth in overall yield, mainly driven by healthy business travel demand and favourable
currency trends." said Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific's Director for Commercial and Cargo.
"In terms of cargo, we had stable uplift in May. Higher transshipment flow across the
network helped improve our load factor, while yield also strengthened. Our new European
routes to Brussels, Copenhagen and Dublin were all launched smoothly and are performing in
line with our expectations." he added. (KL)