Friday, March 22, 2024
Cathay Pacific has unveiled its traffic report for February 2024, showcasing robust travel demand, particularly during the Chinese New Year festivities. On February 18th, the airline reached a significant milestone, transporting over 70,000 passengers and operating 272 passenger flight sectors, marking its busiest day since the onset of the pandemic.
In February 2024, Cathay Pacific witnessed a significant uptick in passenger numbers, totaling 1,801,174 individuals, showcasing a notable 61.6% surge compared to February 2023. Concurrently, revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) experienced a robust increase of 50.3% year-over-year. Despite this remarkable growth, the passenger load factor saw a marginal decline of 3.8 percentage points to reach 82.4%, while available seat kilometers (ASKs) soared by 57.3% compared to the prior year.
Throughout the initial two months of 2024, passenger volumes escalated by 63.9%, outpacing the growth rates of ASKs and RPKs, which rose by 60.6% and 53.4%, respectively, in comparison to the same period in 2023.
In terms of cargo, Cathay Pacific transported 107,039 tonnes in February 2024, marking a 3% increase from February 2023. Cargo revenue tonne kilometers (RFTKs) saw a 3.8% year-on-year increase. However, the cargo load factor experienced a decrease of 7.5 percentage points to 59.2%, while available cargo tonne kilometers (AFTKs) surged by 16.9% compared to the previous year. Over the first two months of 2024, cargo tonnage increased by 11.4%, while AFTKs and RFTKs rose by 17.6% and 7.5%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2023.
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “Our passenger business performed well in February as customers travelled for Chinese New Year. Demand from Hong Kong, the rest of the Greater Bay Area and the Chinese Mainland surged over the holiday period, especially on short-haul routes. We also saw good traffic between the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong. As a result, our Chinese Mainland routes achieved 85% load factors over Chinese New Year. Our Japan routes also saw a strong resurgence in bookings, especially from Hong Kong, after the subdued demand in January following the devastating earthquakes that impacted Japan.
“Following the introduction of visa-free travel between the Chinese Mainland and various countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in recent months, travel sentiment has remained consistently positive on these routes. We also resumed our Chennai and Colombo services in February, and these have been well received by customers. For Chennai, traffic has been good to and from Hong Kong, as well as onward destinations in the United States. For Colombo, we have seen good demand from customers from the Chinese Mainland, Japan and Australia.
“For cargo, demand was weaker in February, which was expected given the timing of Chinese New Year, with tonnage down by 7% compared with the previous month. However, when compared with February 2023, tonnage was up by 3%. There was a healthy spike in demand before Chinese New Year, and although demand from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland declined during the holiday period, the impact was also less than in previous years.
“Taken across the two months, we saw good growth in tonnage on long-haul routes from other markets in Asia, as well as on routes from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. We observed encouraging growth in special products such as pharmaceuticals, perishables and machinery parts. Overall for January and February combined, our cargo performance has met expectations, with increased tonnage carried compared with the same period last year.
“Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome the IATA World Cargo Symposium – one of the largest global events in the air cargo industry – to Hong Kong for the first time. The event achieved record attendance and as the host airline, Cathay Cargo was pleased to be able to showcase everything that makes Hong Kong best-in-class as an air cargo logistics hub.
“Looking ahead, on the travel side we anticipate demand will progressively grow leading up to the Easter holidays, especially on long-haul routes. We are seeing strong demand for business travel into Hong Kong with various exhibitions taking place in the city. The extension of the Individual Visit Scheme to include travellers from Xi’an and Qingdao will also boost sentiment for travel to Hong Kong, especially during the Labour Day holiday in May.
“Throughout our rebuild journey, we have put in great effort to not only resume destinations and increase frequencies, but also expand our network and bring more business opportunities and leisure travel destinations for the Hong Kong travelling public. In addition, we have been a staunch supporter of the Central Government’s Belt and Road Initiative, serving 21 destinations in 14 participating countries already. We are excited to announce that Cathay Pacific will be launching passenger flights to Riyadh, the capital and financial hub of Saudi Arabia, in the fourth quarter of this year, and we will share more details in due course.
“On the cargo side, we expect demand to pick up towards the second half of the month as we approach the end of the first quarter. E-commerce continues to drive demand out of Hong Kong, although we maintain a balance in our tonnage with the wide range of freight solutions we provide to customers to meet their cargo requirements.“
The comprehensive data for February and a glossary can be found in the subsequent pages.
CATHAY PACIFIC TRAFFIC
FEBRUARY 2024
% Change vs. February 2023
Cumulative FEB 2024 % Change YTD
Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) (000)
Total RPK (000): 7,173,058 (50.3%) | 14,298,496 (53.4%)
Passengers carried: 1,801,174 (61.6%) | 3,518,374 (63.9%)
Cargo Revenue Tonne Kilometers (000): 633,590 (3.8%) | 1,273,118 (7.5%)
Cargo carried (000kg): 107,039 (3.0%) | 221,829 (11.4%)
Number of flight sectors (passenger and cargo): 8,639 (49.2%) | 17,328 (54.0%)
CATHAY PACIFIC CAPACITY
FEBRUARY 2024
% Change vs. February 2023
Cumulative FEB 2024 % Change YTD
Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) (000)
Total ASK (000): 8,705,854 (57.3%) | 17,313,389 (60.6%)
Passenger load factor: 82.4% (-3.8%pt) | 82.6% (-3.9%pt)
Available Cargo Tonne Kilometers (000): 1,069,447 (16.9%) | 2,160,834 (17.6%)
Cargo load factor: 59.2% (-7.5%pt) | 58.9% (-5.5%pt)
Available Tonne Kilometers (ATK) (000): 1,898,161 (31.5%) | 3,809,261 (32.9%)
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
