Cathay Pacific’s latest figures for January showed a massive increase in passenger numbers compared to the previous year as it continues to rebuild and restore connectivity at the Hong Kong international aviation hub. Cargo saw a slight decline compared to the previous month, but the airline is confident of positive growth in the passenger segment in the coming months.

4,000% year-on-year passenger increase

Cathay Pacific released its traffic figures for January 2023 and crossed the one million monthly passenger mark for the first time since the pandemic started. The airline flew 1,031,893 passengers, an increase of 4,077.9% compared with January 2022.

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Other monthly indicators were also positive, such as revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), which increased by 3,807.3% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 46.4 percentage points to 86.8%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), increased by 1,717.1% year-on-year. Cathay Pacific’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau commented,

“We carried on average more than 33,000 passengers per day, up from about 26,000 per day in December 2022, and operated 18% more capacity than we did in December. We also continued to add more destinations in January, with our Phuket and Xi’an flights resuming.

“With the return of quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland on 8 January, we saw increased demand for travel into the Chinese Mainland, both from and through Hong Kong. We have been increasing our flights accordingly and by the end of the month, we were operating up to three return flights per day to Shanghai and 11 return flights per week to Beijing.”

Fluctuating cargo

The airline’s cargo figures saw a rise towards the beginning of January, with a slight increase in demand before the Lunar New Year holiday. But while the first half of January saw good levels of air cargo being carried, the trend reversed in the second half.

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Lau said that overall demand softened as factories closed for the holidays. But the airline expected this and rationalized its freighter capacity in advance to reflect the reduced demand. Cathay Pacific’s tonnage in January decreased 11% month on month, while cargo flight capacity declined 4% compared with the previous month. The overall load factor was slightly above 60%.

Growth expected

Cathay Pacific is confident of continued recovery in the coming months, especially in the lead-up to the Easter holiday. It expects passengers to increasingly fly to and from the Chinese Mainland, both for point-to-point and connecting traffic via Hong Kong.

By the end of February, the carrier is on track to operate more than 100 return flights per week to 14 cities in the Chinese Mainland.

With increased flight operations and relaxed travel rules, Cathay Pacific also recently reopened its “The Deck” lounge in Hong Kong on February 6th. Hopefully, these trends will continue all through 2023 as the airline gradually attempts to get back on its feet.

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