Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,417,906 passengers in May 2034, an increase of 2,345% compared with May 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 1,664% year on year. Passenger load factor increased by 24.7 percentage points to 85.1%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 1,152% year on year.
In the first five months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 3,281% against a 1,786% increase in capacity and a 3,062% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
Cathay Pacific’s latest traffic figures for May 2023 show airline’s progress as it rebuilds flight connectivity at the Hong Kong airport.
The airline carried 109,834 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 18.8% compared with May 2022.
Lavinia Lau, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, Cathay Pacific said: “May was another good month for our travel business. We continued to progressively increase our passenger flight capacity and added more frequencies to popular destinations in the US, South Asia and Japan. Although demand reduced temporarily following the Easter holiday peak, it picked up again over the Buddha’s Birthday holiday weekend towards the end of May, with travel to Japan and Thailand being particularly popular. Transit traffic via the Hong Kong hub was also encouraging with considerable demand to and from the Chinese Mainland.”
Going ahead the airline expects to get a boost from students returning to Hong Kong after the school term ends in the upcoming summer. The airline is planning to resume its seasonal Christchurch service from December 16, 2023 through to February 29, 2024 with three return flights per week, following the earlier announcement of service resumption to Johannesburg and Chicago from August and October 2023, respectively
The Group expects to recognise a one-off non-cash gain, estimated to be approximately HK$1.9 billion, in the first half of 2023 as a result of a deemed disposal of the Group’s interest in Air China Limited from 18.13% to 16.26%. With improved cash flow, together with the offsetting impact of the results from associates, which are reported three months in arrears the Group expects to deliver a consolidated profit for the first half of 2023.