Cathay Pacific is projecting a “strong” financial performance for the second half of 2024, the company said in a report on December 20, 2024.
“The group projects a strong second-half financial result driven by elevated cargo demand and reduced fuel prices,” said Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau. “This is partially offset by a continued normalisation of passenger yields as the supply of flights increases to meet demand in the overall market as expected.”
Results from associates are expected to improve in the second half compared to the first half, with these results being recognised three months in arrears.
In addition, Cathay Pacific 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).
“With respect to the Cathay Group's consolidated 2024 full-year financial result, the second half of the year has historically been the stronger of the two halves for the group and this has been the case this year as it was in 2023,” continued Lau.
With the company “successfully” completing its “two-year rebuilding journey”, Lau said Cathay Pacific and HK Express will reach 100% of pre-pandemic flights from January 2025. The company has added around 7,000 new staff members throughout 2024 to support the increase in operations for the new year.
“We project that the two airlines will operate passenger services to 100 destinations around the world within 2025,” added Lau.
The company also provided its November 2024 figures, carrying just over 2 million passengers in the month, marking a 23.1% increase over November 2023.
“November was another solid month for our travel business,” continued Lau. “Passenger volumes remained strong across our network and for the fourth time year, Cathay Pacific carried more than two million passengers in a single month.”
Revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) were up just over a quarter in the period. North America traffic held the largest share of RPKs at 2.4bn and increased 28.7% year-on-year, while Chinese mainland held the smallest share at 411.8 million, though increasing 29.2%. South Asia, Middle East & Africa RPK growth outpaced the rest of the regions, growing 45.7% year-on-year, and also coming above China mainland with 618.4 million RPKs.
Lau also noted “particularly robust” demand on routes to Japan and South Korea, driven by traffic from Australia, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. In addition, the company said its premium cabin offerings had “good demand” in the period.
Capacity increased 21.3% overall. North East Asia saw the smallest capacity increase at 2.7%, while North America led the charge with capacity increasing 34.7%, followed shortly behind by South Asia, Middle East & Africa at 32.3%. Passenger load factor was up three percentage points to 83.5%
Cargo capacity was up 9.8%, while cargo revenue tonne kilometre was up 15%. The company carried 15% more cargo in November 2024, compared to a year prior. Cargo load factor was up 1.2 percentage points to 62.3%. The company said there was high demand from the Americas and Southwest Pacific for perishables. In addition, its Cathay Expert solution had an increase in tonnage with the transport of machinery and engines, especially from Japan.