Cathay Pacific Releases Combined Traffic Figures for June 2015

Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for June 2015 that show a healthy rise in the number of passengers carried compared to the same month in 2014, but only a marginal increase in the volume of cargo and mail uplifted.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,810,592 passengers in June - an increase of 7.6% compared to the June 2014. The passenger load factor grew by 1.3 percentage points to 87.2% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 6.1%. In the first six months of 2015, passenger traffic grew by 8.8% while capacity was up by 6.4%.

The two airlines carried 141,136 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 0.5% compared to June 2014. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 2.2 percentage points to 62.7%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 5.9% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown increased by 2.2%. In the first six months of 2015, tonnage rose by 8.0% against a capacity increase of 8.9% and a 10.5% rise in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Patricia Hwang said: "The increase in passenger numbers continued to keep ahead of capacity growth last month and we saw high load factors across our network. The last week of June was particularly busy as we moved into the summer peak period, with strong demand for both long-haul and regional travel. Our new routes to Zurich and Boston have both been performing ahead of expectations. However, we saw a sharp falloff in bookings for Korea after the HKSAR Government raised the Red Outbound Travel Alert in response to the MERS outbreak. Premium demand remained behind target on a number of key long-haul routes though we saw growth within the region."

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing Mark Sutch said: "Growth in the cargo markets has been softening as the year has progressed and we saw a continuation of this trend in June. Last month’s tonnage growth was almost flat year on year and fell well short of the increase in capacity in percentage terms. Traffic out of the home market was generally steady but demand out of Mainland China was more sporadic, and was again affected by strong competition. Leveraging our strong network in Southeast Asia helped maintain traffic flows on our transpacific services and we did not trim capacity on these lanes. Conversely, demand from Asia to Europe remained weak and we pared back freighter services on these routes, relying instead on our extensive passenger aircraft belly lift."