Cathay Pacific and Dragonair Carried 2,984,795 Passengers in July 2015

Combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for July 2015 show strong year-on-year growth in the number of passengers carried, but only a marginal increase in the volume of cargo and mail uplifted.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,984,795 passengers last month – an increase of 6.9% compared to July 2014.

The passenger load factor grew by 1.4 percentage points to 87.0% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), grew by 6.2%.

In the year to the end of July, passenger traffic rose by 8.5% while capacity increased by 6.4%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management, Patricia Hwang, said, “July was a busy month for our passenger business with the growth in traffic staying ahead of the increase in capacity, although yield remained under pressure. Loads were high on most routes across our network with strong demand for leisure travel both within the region and to long-haul destinations. Premium traffic was reasonably robust on regional routes though we continued to see a shortfall to some key long-haul destinations. Traffic to Korea remained weak in July due to the MERS outbreak and we reduced capacity accordingly. However, we expect demand to rebound quickly now that the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Red Outbound Travel Alert for Korea has been lifted.”

The two airlines carried 147,545 tonnes of cargo and mail in July, an increase of 0.5% compared to the same month last year.

The cargo and mail load factor fell by 2.9 percentage points to 61.8%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 6.2% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown increased by 1.4%.

In the year to the end of July, tonnage rose by 6.8% against a capacity increase of 8.5% and a 9.0% rise in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing, Mark Sutch, said, “After a flat second quarter, demand for air freight shipments remained below expectations throughout July. The growth in tonnage lagged the growth in capacity by a sizeable margin, which dragged down the month’s load factor. Yield remained under pressure due to overcapacity in a number of markets. Among the positive stories of the month, demand into and out of India continued to be ahead of expectations and we also saw an upsurge in project shipments out of Western China, and Chongqing in particular.”