Cathay Pacific passenger numbers up in July 2024

Cathay Pacific carried a total of 2.01 million passengers in July 2024, an increase of 15.1% compared with July 2023. For the month, its revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 16.1% over last year. Passenger load factor was up 3.8 percentage points to 85.5% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 21.2%. ""July was a milestone month for Cathay Pacific as the airline carried over two million passengers for the first time in a single month since our rebuild, while the 85.5% load factor was the highest of any month so far this year,"" said Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau. Lau added: ""Such robust demand was driven by the increased popularity of long-haul flights to and from Hong Kong in the first half of the month among students and those visiting friends and relatives. This was followed by a surge in demand for travel to popular short-haul destinations in Japan and Southeast Asia in the second half of July. ""In addition, we saw strong demand for flights to Paris due to the Olympic Games, and we were delighted to carry a significant number of athletes and spectators to attend this momentous sporting occasion."" Looking at the first seven months of the year, it carried 12.7 million passengers up 32.5% over the same period last year. Capacity was up 39% over the same period in 2023, as well as a 31.6% increase in RPKs. The airline carried 126.8 tonnes of cargo in July 2024, up 9.6% compared to July 2023. Its cargo load factor was down 1.5 percentage point to 58.3%. ""Given July is traditionally a softer month for demand, this was encouraging and bodes well for August,"" said Lau. ""In terms of commodity mix, we observed an uptick in perishable goods shipments from southeast Asia and the south west Pacific into Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, and increased tonnage through our Cathay Expert services using the dedicated freighters for project shipments and outsized cargo. E-commerce shipments continued to be the main driver of volumes from the greater bay area."" The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 0.5% in comparison to June 2023, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 2.1% over last year.