Cathay Pacific today released its traffic figures for June 2024, which saw a new record achieved. On 30 June 2024, Cathay Pacific and HK Express together carried about 92,000 passengers combined, the highest daily number since the pandemic. In the first six months of 2024, the two airlines carried a total of approximately 13.5 million passengers.

Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,837,706 passengers in June 2024, an increase of 18.7% compared with June 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 23.7% year on year. Passenger load factor decreased by 4.2 percentage points to 83.5%, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 30% year on year. In the first six months of 2024, the number of passengers carried increased by 36.4% to a total of 10,659,601, against a 42.7% increase in ASKs and a 34.9% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.

The airline carried 124,568 tonnes of cargo in June 2024, an increase of 12% compared with June 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 5.6% year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 2.1 percentage points to 59.6%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 9.4% year on year. In the first six months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.5% to a total of 719,464 tonnes, against an 11.4% increase in AFTKs and a 4.6% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.

Travel
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “Following a slightly quieter month in May, travel sentiment rebounded in June with leisure travel on both long-haul and short-haul routes performing well. Demand for long-haul travel was driven by the peak season for returning student traffic, and load factors for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe were each close to 90%. The resumption of our summer seasonal Barcelona service was also popular with customers, particularly those originating from Hong Kong, Spain and Australia.

“In terms of short-haul leisure travel, the Dragon Boat Festival and Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day long-holiday weekends drove strong demand from our home market, with Japan remaining a popular destination for our customers.

Cargo
“June is traditionally a slower month for air cargo; however, demand was stronger than anticipated and we observed strong year-on-year tonnage growth from Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Japan and Europe in particular. Across our network, our tonnage was 3% higher than May and 12% above June last year. In terms of commodity mix, we observed an uptick of pharmaceuticals shipments, especially from Europe.

“In June, we relaunched Cathay Expert to provide customers with a fully customised handling solution for their odd size, heavy or fragile cargo. The response from our customers has been positive and we observed a 34% tonnage improvement for Cathay Expert compared with the previous month.

Outlook
“The outlook for the summer travel peak remains robust across our network. Looking ahead, we will continue to introduce new destinations for our customers to explore. We were delighted to announce earlier this month that we will be launching a four-times-weekly service to Ningbo in August, and a three-times-weekly seasonal service to Cairns between December and March next year, both of which we expect to be popular with customers. As a Group, we have already announced 10 new destinations so far this year, seven of which have commenced services.

“For cargo, the second half of the year is the traditional peak period and we expect the healthy demand we have seen throughout the first half of the year to continue. Market sentiment, particularly out of Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, continues to be positive. We will continue to adjust our freighter capacity to accommodate our customers’ needs, including adding more freighter capacity to the Americas.

“Earlier this month, we announced that on 31 July 2024 we will buy back the remaining 50% – HK$9.75 billion – of the preference shares that were issued to the Hong Kong SAR Government as part of our recapitalisation in 2020, and pay any remaining unpaid preference share dividends up to 31 July 2024. This will bring the total amount of the preference share dividends paid to the Hong Kong SAR Government over its holding period to HK$2.44 billion. We would like to thank the Hong Kong SAR Government and all shareholders for their invaluable support both during and since the pandemic.”


Glossary

Terms: 

Available seat kilometres (“ASK”)
Passenger seat capacity, measured in seats available for the carriage of passengers on each sector multiplied by the sector distance.

Available tonne kilometres (“ATK”) 
Overall capacity measured in tonnes available for the carriage of passengers, excess baggage, cargo on each sector multiplied by the sector distance. 

Available cargo tonne kilometres (“AFTK”) 
Cargo capacity measured in tonnes available for the carriage of freight on each sector multiplied by the sector distance. 

Revenue passenger kilometres (“RPK”) 
Number of passengers carried on each sector multiplied by the sector distance. 

Cargo revenue tonne kilometres (“RFTK”) 
Amount of cargo, measured in tonnes, carried on each sector multiplied by the sector distance.