Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for December 2007 that show a double-digit growth in passenger numbers over the same month last year. Cargo tonnage also grew, but again lagged behind the growth in capacity.

In December the two airlines carried a total of 2,117,307 passengers, up 10.4% on December 2007, with the load factor rising by 1.4 percentage points to 80.8%. The capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), rose by 8.6%. For 2007 as a whole, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried 23,253,427 passengers - 4.3% more than in the previous year - while capacity rose by 2.8%.

The two airlines carried a total of 147,800 tonnes of freight last month, a rise of 2.9% year on year, while the cargo and mail load factor remained static at 68.6%. Capacity for December rose by 6.9% - the same figure as for the year as a whole. In 2007 the airlines saw tonnage growth of 3.0% over 2006 to 1,641,853 tonnes.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management, Sales & Distribution Ian Shiu said: "The robust growth in passenger traffic continued in December and a very busy holiday peak brought a strong year to a satisfactory close. We expect business to remain steady and bookings are healthy through the next peak at Chinese New Year."

Cathay Pacific Director & General Manager Cargo Ron Mathison said: "After a generally lacklustre year for the airfreight business, this year's seasonal peak was stronger and more prolonged than expected. We were pleased to see tonnage growth of 2.9% for the month, which again was driven by high demand for products manufactured in Mainland China."

Note:(i)   Comparative figures exclude Dragonair Jan-Oct 2006
        (ii)   Comparative figures include Dragonair