Dragonair reports October 2005 Passenger numbers

Dragonair set a new daily passenger number record on October 23, with 19,537 travellers flying with the airline. This broke the airline's old record of 19,242 set in the same month last year.

Passenger numbers for the whole month however, were 5.1% higher than in October last year, standing at 474,673 compared with 451,644.

“As our previous daily passenger record shows, October is a traditionally busy month for travel,” said CEO Stanley Hui. “The numbers also represented a quite strong rebound from September.”

The number of passengers flying in October was 14% higher than in September.

“Factors pushing traffic higher included more outbound travel from Mainland cities to Hong Kong and beyond during the ‘Golden Week’ holidays,” noted Mr. Hui.

“Overall, lower group travel in the month was more than offset by strong growth throughout our network in individual travellers. October is always a busy time for events in Mainland cities, such as fairs and exhibitions.”

Cargo recorded month-on-month growth of 2.8% to 34,704 tonnes. Year-on-year growth was basically unchanged, at -0.1%.

“Shipments to the US continued to perform well ahead of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, when there is a lot of shopping activity, while shipments to Japan were below expectations,” Mr. Hui said.

The airline also saw a rise in shipments of electronic goods from the Mainland, and the Yangtze River Delta area in particular, to the major markets of Europe and the US as retailers ramp up supplies for the busy Christmas sales period.

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