Cathay Pacific Airways today released traffic figures for August that show passenger growth keeping ahead of the airline's increase in capacity over the summer peak period.

Last month the airline carried a total of 1,488,507 passengers, up 5.2% on August 2005. The passenger load factor was up by 1.3 percentage points to 83.1% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, was up 3.9%. Figures for the year to date show passenger numbers up 9.4% and capacity up 9.3% over the corresponding period in 2005.

The amount of cargo carried by the airline in August was 94,987 tonnes, a 0.5% gain on the same month last year. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 0.7% over August 2005. The cargo load factor for the month rose by 1.5 percentage points to 65.8%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management, Sales & Distribution Ian Shiu said: "The strong start to the peak season we saw in June and July continued through August with a high load factor and an expected strong demand in the back end as people took summer holidays. Interestingly, business traffic during this holiday period has been much more substantial than last year, giving a welcome boost to yield."

Cathay Pacific Director & General Manager Cargo Ron Mathison said: "Demand out of Hong Kong and China remained high in August, and our load factor held up despite the holiday season beginning in key markets such as Europe. We added an extra flight to Dallas and Atlanta at the beginning of the month, taking advantage of the strong demand we've seen on that route since it launched late last year."

Cathay Pacific Airways
Corporate Communication Department