HONG KONG, 24 April 2023: Cathay Pacific’s passenger load factor surpassed 90% in March, reflecting the ongoing strong demand for travel, according to the airline’s March traffic figures released last week.
Cathay Pacific and HK Express reached 50% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels, covering more than 70 destinations as of the end of March.
The airline carried 1,322,180 passengers in March, an increase of 4,217% compared with March 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 4,828% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 44.8 percentage points to 90.4%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 2,384% year-on-year. In the first three months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 3,907% against a 2,174% increase in capacity and a 4,432% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau commented: “The first quarter of 2023 has been one of continued improvement for our travel business as we focus on reconnecting Hong Kong with the world. Cathay Pacific’s passenger numbers continued to increase month on month in March, growing 19% to more than 1.3 million compared with February.
“We resumed services to three more destinations – Shanghai Hongqiao airport, Haikou and Nagoya in March. Hongqiao in particular, saw huge demand for both business and leisure travel. Our Japan and South Korea flights benefited from good passenger traffic for the cherry blossom season and demand ahead of the Easter holiday. Demand between Hong Kong and Taiwan was similarly strong, including transit traffic from Taiwan to Europe and Indonesia via the Hong Kong hub.
“We were also delighted to bring back more customer experience highlights, with First class returning on select flights on our Beijing and Los Angeles routes, and our airport lounges in Bangkok, Beijing and Manila also reopening, all of which were very welcomed by our customers who missed those special Cathay touches over the past three years.”
Outlook
Lau presented a positive outlook for April, noting the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens returned in full force earlier this month.
“Cathay has always supported mega events that help build Hong Kong’s international status. As the first mask-free Sevens after the Hong Kong border reopened, it was great to see visitors from around the world again coming to Hong Kong to experience this incredible sporting weekend filled with fun and laughter.
“Regarding our travel business, we continued to see strong demand into the Easter holidays, reflecting positive and robust sentiment for travel. On 9 April, we broke the 50,000 mark for the first time since the pandemic, carrying 53,233 passengers. We are actively working on adding more flights to our schedule to satisfy customer demand, in particular between Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Between now and the end of October, roundtrip flights will progressively increase to 160 per week, covering 16 airports in 15 cities. This includes four return flights per day to Beijing, six return flights per day to Shanghai Pudong airport and nine return flights per week to Shanghai Hongqiao airport.”
