Cathay Pacific Reports February 2014 Traffic

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair's combined traffic figures for February 2014 show an increase in passenger numbers alongside a drop in cargo and mail tonnage compared to the same month in 2013.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,381,020 passengers in February 2014 – an increase of 1.8% compared to the same month last year. The passenger load factor rose by 1.1 percentage points to 81.9%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 3.0%. In the first two months of the year, the passenger volume rose by 5.5% compared to a 3.2% increase in capacity.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management, James Tong, said, “January’s healthy demand continued into February and it was encouraging to see passenger numbers growing over 2013, despite the Chinese New Year peak for leisure travel falling in February last year. Demand on long-haul routes held up particularly well and within the region we again saw robust traffic to both Japan and Korea. The unrest in Bangkok continued to affect bookings and we adjusted capacity to match demand on the route. Business in the premium cabins was in line with expectations in February.”

The two airlines carried 101,295 tonnes of cargo and mail in February, a drop of 2.4% compared to February 2013. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 1.8 percentage points to 59.3%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, fell by 1.5% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres flown were down by 4.4%. In the first two months of the year, tonnage dropped by 1.8% against a capacity increase of 3.9%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing, Mark Sutch, said, “Demand in the key Hong Kong and Mainland China markets plummeted following the beginning of Chinese New Year and the pick-up after the holiday was slow. However, by the middle of the month we began to see an increase in demand on the North America and Europe lanes and also for intra-Asia traffic, and by the end of February we were operating close to a full schedule. The Americas will remain a key focus for our cargo business and March sees two new destinations added to our freighter network – Mexico City and Columbus, Ohio.”