Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for December 2012 that show an increase for both passenger numbers and cargo and mail tonnage compared to the same month last year.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,520,864 passengers in December - an increase of 2.5% compared to the same month last year. The passenger load factor rose by 1.1 percentage points to 80.7%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), fell by 4.5%. For 2012 as a whole, the number of passengers carried rose by 5.0% compared to a capacity increase of 2.6%. The year's load factor was 80.1%, down 0.3% on 2011.

The two airlines carried 146,897 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 3.4% compared to December 2011. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 0.4 percentage points to 67.4%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 1.0%, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres rose by 0.4%. For the whole of 2012, tonnage declined by 5.3% while capacity dropped by 3.1%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management James Tong said: "Our passenger capacity showed a year-on-year decline for the fourth month in a row, though the number of extra sectors operated over the Christmas peak was on a par with December 2011. Passenger demand held up in the Economy cabin in December, with high numbers travelling to key regional destinations over the holiday period. The reduction in capacity helped to push up yield on long-haul routes; however, the overall performance in the premium cabins was weaker than expected."

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing James Woodrow said: "December was the fourth month in a row that we saw year-on-year growth in tonnage. The cargo market had been in the doldrums since April 2011, so it was good to see the year ending on a stronger note. However, the cargo and mail tonnage carried in 2012 was still some way behind the 2010 total. We operated close to a full freighter schedule in December and added one more new destination to our freighter network, Colombo in Sri Lanka. As expected, demand tailed away significantly following the pre-Christmas rush."