HONG KONG, 19 May 2023: Cathay Pacific carried 1,381,073 passengers in April, an increase of 3,283% compared with April 2022, according to the latest traffic figures released this week.
Cathay Pacific Group, comprising passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, carried almost six million passengers during the year’s first four months.
The airline group said traffic figures for April 2023 reflected strong demand for travel during the holiday period and confirmed travel sentiment has remained positive since the beginning of the year.
The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 3,139% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 31.3 percentage points to 86.9%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 1,973% year-on-year. In the first four months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 3,707% against a 2,116% increase in capacity and a 3,989% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
Travel
The airline’s chief customer and commercial officer, Lavinia Lau said: “April was a busy month for our travel business as many of our customers looked to enjoy a getaway during the holiday period. Passenger demand was robust over the Easter holiday in the early part of the month. On 9 April, we recorded our highest number of passengers on a single day since the start of the pandemic, carrying 53,233 in total. Meanwhile, we continued to increase our passenger flight capacity and add more frequencies to destinations in Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and Japan. Demand for premium class seats has also been buoyant, driven by corporate and leisure travel.
“We experienced a surge in demand from Indonesia in mid-April, coinciding with the end of Ramadan, and we added more flights from Jakarta and Surabaya for our customers accordingly. Towards the end of April, we also saw increased traffic ahead of Labour Day and the Golden Week holiday from the Chinese Mainland.
Outlook
Looking ahead to the rest of May and beyond, Lau said the priority was to continue efforts to reconnect with customers.
“We are progressively increasing flight capacity as we approach the peak summer travel season. Regarding destinations, we look forward to resuming our Johannesburg service from 1 August with three weekly flights, again connecting our home city with Africa. On top of that, from 3 October, we will resume our Chicago service with three weekly flights, giving us seven destinations in North America and further expanding our connectivity with the region.”
(Source: Cathay Pacific)
