Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for July 2009 that show another significant fall in passenger numbers compared with the same month last year. There was also another year-on-year drop in cargo and mail tonnage.

In July, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,080,326 passengers - down 9.9% against the same month in 2008 - while capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), fell by 7.5%. The month's load factor saw a drop of 0.6 percentage points to 83.5%. For the year to date, the number of passengers carried has fallen by 5.1% compared to a capacity decline of 2.9%.

The two airlines carried a total of 133,233 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, down 6.7% on July 2008, while the cargo and mail load factor rose by 6.6 percentage points to 72.6% as a result of the capacity decline. Capacity for the month, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was 12.6% down. For the year to date, tonnage has fallen by 14.1% compared to a capacity drop of 13.9%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Tom Owen said: "The adverse impact of Influenza A (H1N1) on regional demand continued in July, although there was a pickup in leisure travel towards the end of the month as concerns eased in some markets. Load factors remained flat over last year, despite significantly reduced capacity, highlighting the continued impact of the global economic downturn on demand. Bookings in the premium cabins remained especially weak which, combined with ongoing aggressive economy class competition and adverse currency movements, continued to stymie any material yield recovery."

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing Titus Diu said: "Our tonnage decline has seen successive reductions since the beginning of the year, and July's drop of 6.7% was the smallest year-on-year monthly drop so far in 2009. The indications now are that the massive slide in the air cargo market has bottomed out and we were encouraged to see an increase in demand out of our home market, Hong Kong. However, intense competition is still putting yield under considerable pressure."