Cathay Group carries over 28m passengers, 1.5m tonnes cargo in 2024

Dhaka: In the full year of 2024, the Cathay Group achieved new post-pandemic highs for total passengers and cargo carried as it posted traffic figures on January 21. Cathay Pacific and HK Express carried a combined total of over 28 million passengers, marking an increase of 30.7 per cent year on year. Meanwhile, Cathay Cargo carried a total of 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, which was 11 per cent higher than the whole of 2023.

About the development, Lavinia Lau, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, Cathay, said, “December is the traditional peak season for our travel business as customers visit friends and relatives, and travel for leisure over the Christmas and New Year holidays. In 2024, we achieved a significant milestone during the year-end travel peak with Cathay Pacific and HK Express together carrying more than 100,000 passengers in a single day—the most since the start of our rebuild—on a total of eight days.”

Cathay Pacific carried a total of 2,248,950 passengers in December 2024, an increase of 26.4 per cent compared with December 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres increased 27.9 per cent year on year. Passenger load factor increased by 3.6 percentage points to 84.8 per cent, while available seat kilometres increased by 22.5 per cent year on year.

The airline carried 143,564 tonnes of cargo in December 2024, an increase of 11.7 per cent compared with December 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres increased 6.5 per cent year on year. The cargo load factor increased by 0.6 percentage points to 61.4 per cent, while available cargo tonne kilometres increased by 5.5 per cent year on year.

“As a Group, we made incredible progress in 2024, having successfully completed our two-year rebuild journey and reaching 100 per cent of our pre-pandemic flights from January 2025. Just recently, Cathay Pacific announced the launch of direct flights between Hong Kong and Rome starting June this year. As a Group, we have already announced six new destinations so far for 2025 as we strive towards reaching 100 destinations worldwide this year.”

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