Cathay Group surpassed 100,000 passengers on a single day, the company said on January 2, 2025.
On December 15, 2024, both Cathay Pacific and HK Express carried a combined total of 100,856 passengers.
“Since the milestone was first reached, the group exceeded the 100,000 passenger mark on a total of eight days during the year-end travel peak ending December 31, 2024,” the company read in a statement.
The airline also took delivery of of a new A321neo on December 19, 2024. The aircraft was financed by a JOLCO structure provided by Credit Agricole CIB (CACIB) acting as global arranger, lender, facility agent, and security trustee.
The aircraft was part of a two aircraft JOLCO financing mandate which also included one A321neo, which was delivered to HK Express in July 2024.
In addition, HSBC upgraded Cathay Pacific to hold on January 7, 2024, on the back of the company's flights recovering to pre-pandemic levels. However, its capacity is still 79% of 2019's levels, while revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) recovered to 82% of 2019 levels, which lead to a load factor of 83% in November 2024 — up from 80% in November 2019.
In addition, the company repurchased HK$4.6bn ($591.7 million) of convertible bonds on January 2, 2025.
“We think Cathay Pacific may continue to purchase outstanding convertible bonds, reducing dilution risk and showing its confidence in cash flow and long-term prospects,” HSBC said in its report.
The company had diluted its interest in Air China from 15.87% to 15.09% after the latter issued 855 million new A shares to China National Aviation Holding with proceeds of the issuance totalling RMB6bn ($822 million). As a result, Cathay expects its second half results to include a gain of approximately HK$500 million ($64.3 million).