Cathay Pacific Releases Combined Traffic Figures for October 2010

Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for October 2010 that showed significant increases in the number of passengers and amount of cargo and mail carried compared to the same month last year.

The two airlines carried a total of 2,293,507 passengers in October - up 14.1% on the same month in 2009. The passenger load factor was 83.2%, a rise of 0.9 percentage points, while capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), was up by 12.6%. For the year to date, the number of passengers carried is up 11.2% compared to an ASK rise of 4.0%.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried 164,927 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, up 15.1% on October last year. The cargo and mail load factor was 75.1%, a drop of 1.6 percentage points, while capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 26.6%. For the year to date, tonnage has grown by 19.9% and cargo/mail tonne kilometres was up by 25.1% compared to a capacity increase of 14.2%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Tom Owen said: "Once again we achieved high load factors across most of our network in October, generating much improved revenue quality and volumes in both the Economy and Premium cabins over recent years. Benefitting from a significant rise in capacity, passenger demand out of our key Hong Kong market remained robust, while the China market continued to perform strongly, boosted by demand for the last month of the Shanghai Expo and the Canton Trade Fairs."

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing James Woodrow said: "The cargo peak season kicked in last month, with very strong demand out of Hong Kong on all major trunk routes. Demand into Japan and Australia was a high as a result of the strong currencies in both countries, and we put on additional capacity out of Hanoi and Dhaka in response to an increase in export shipments. October saw a big increase in capacity over the same month in 2009, and though back to our full freighter schedule we mounted extra sectors where possible to meet market demand."