HONG KONG, 25 November 2024: Cathay Pacific reached the milestone of operating more than 10,000 passenger and cargo flight sectors in a single month for the first time this year, according to its October travel figures.
Cathay Pacific carried 2,014,105 passengers in October 2024, an increase of 19.6% compared with October 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 19.1% year-on-year. Passenger load factor decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 83.1%, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 21.3% year-on-year. In the first 10 months of 2024, the number of passengers carried increased by 27.4% to a total of 18,567,818, against a 32.7% increase in ASKs and a 26.8% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
The airline carried 142,323 tonnes of cargo in October 2024, an increase of 14.3% compared with October 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 9.8% year-on-year. The cargo load factor increased by 0.8 percentage points to 61.5%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 8.4% year-on-year. In the first 10 months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.4% to a total of 1,245,899 tonnes, against an 8.8% increase in AFTKs and a 4.1% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
The airline’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “October was another good month for our travel business, with strong demand for both leisure and business travel resulting in a solid load factor of 83% across our network. We saw considerable leisure traffic from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland to destinations in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and Europe during the National Day ‘Golden Week’ holiday at the beginning of the month. The long weekend of the Chung Yeung Festival in Hong Kong also stimulated robust demand from our home city to various short-haul destinations around Asia, with Japan being the most popular choice among our customers.
“Meanwhile, business traffic also remained strong, driven by the various exhibitions and conventions in Hong Kong and the Canton Fair in nearby Guangzhou. This resulted in October seeing the highest number of passengers in our premium cabins of any month since the pandemic.
“Last month, we celebrated the launch of our non-stop passenger service between Hong Kong and Riyadh. This service has been well received by our customers, with considerable demand from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
Outlook
“Looking ahead, we are projecting a strong Christmas travel peak, with Japan anticipated to be a top destination for outbound travel from our home market. We also expect considerable inbound demand from North America, the United Kingdom and other European destinations as customers visit friends and relatives.
“In terms of new destinations, Cathay Pacific’s seasonal service of three weekly flights between Hong Kong and Cairns will launch on 17 December 2024. We recently announced the resumption of Cathay Pacific’s non-stop passenger services to and from Hyderabad starting from 30 March 2025, further enhancing our network presence in India. Additionally, HK Express launched thrice-weekly passenger flights between Hong Kong and Hiroshima at the start of November, increasing to four return flights per week in January 2025.”
