A Cathay Pacific airplane taxis at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong on Nov 25, 2022. (PHOTO / AP)
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd carried more than 1.3 million passengers in March, an increase of over 4,000 percent year-on-year, according to data from Cathay Pacific Group on Friday.
The airline flew 1,322,180 passengers last month, an increase of 4,217 percent compared with March 2022. Passenger load factor soared to 90.4 percent, and capacity — measured in available seat kilometers — rose by around 24 times from a year ago.
Cathay Pacific Group, comprising passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, said its passenger flight capacity has been restored to 50 percent of the level in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and cargo volumes have also seen an increase
Also, in the first quarter of 2023, the number of passengers jumped more than 39 times compared with the same period in the previous year, with capacity up over 20-fold.
“The passenger business of Cathay Pacific continued to improve in the first quarter of 2023, with 19 percent more passengers carried in March than in February, reaching 1.3 million,” said Lavinia Lau Hoi-zee, chief customer and commercial officer of the airline.
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Cathay Pacific Group, comprising passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, said its passenger flight capacity has been restored to 50 percent of the level in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and cargo volumes have also seen an increase.
Data from the Airport Authority Hong Kong last month suggests more than 2 million passengers arrived at or departed from Hong Kong International Airport in February, up about 24 times over the same period last year.
In March, Cathay Pacific resumed service to three destinations — Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, Haikou in south China’s Hainan province, and Nagoya in Japan.
Lau added that Hongqiao saw particularly strong demand for business and leisure travel. Demand for flights between Hong Kong and Taiwan Island was also huge, including travel from Taiwan to Europe or Indonesia via the Hong Kong hub.
Demand over the Easter holiday was strong as well, with a single-day load on April 9 exceeding 50,000 people for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak.
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As for cargo, Cathay Pacific carried 121,776 tonnes of freight in March, up 25.3 percent on the same month last year and up 17 percent on February’s freight tonnage. In the first three months of 2023, the cargo load increased by 35.6 percent year-on-year against a surge of about 1.8 times in capacity.
“The growth in March was driven primarily by e-commerce shipments between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong,” Lau said, “while the demand in other regions was relatively mediocre, reflecting continued weakness in global freight.”
The resumption of more flights, especially to and from the Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese mainland, is underway to meet travelers’ demand.
In the months to come until the end of October, the number of Cathay Pacific flights to and from the mainland will be progressively increased to approximately 160 per week, covering 16 airports in 15 cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
