Cathay carries 60,000 passengers in one day, first time since Covid-19

Dhaka: Cathay Pacific reached a new milestone in June 2023 for the number of passengers carried in a single day since the pandemic as it continues to make good progress in rebuilding connectivity at the Hong Kong international aviation hub.

Commenting on the progress, Lavinia Lau, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, Cathay Pacific, said, “We are pleased to see that our travel business continued to perform well in June. We reached a new milestone on June 25 when we surpassed the 60,000 mark for passengers carried in a single day for the first time since the pandemic. We continued to increase our capacity and frequencies to cater for the strong demand for travel.”

The airline’ traffic figures for June 2023 shows that Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,548,571 passengers last month, an increase of 931.9 per cent compared with June 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 527.9 per cent year on year.

Passenger load factor increased by 20.7 percentage points to 87.7 per cent, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 379.6 per cent year on year.

In the first six months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 2,230 per cent against a 1,111 per cent increase in capacity and a 1,685 per cent increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.

The airline carried 111,210 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 6.4 per cent compared with June 2022.

“Our long-haul routes popular for student traffic, such as North America, the UK and Australasia, all saw good demand, with load factors on flights to Hong Kong averaging about 90 per cent. As a result, overall passenger load factor was very high in June at 87.7 per cent,” said Lavinia Lau.

The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 16.3 per cent year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 6.7 percentage points to 61.7 per cent, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), increased by 29 per cent year on year.

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In the first six months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 23.8 per cent against a 117.6 per cent increase in capacity and an 83 per cent increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.

“For cargo, the summer season is typically a slower period. As expected, overall demand in June remained flat, although e-commerce remains the bright spot and has helped maintain volumes,” added Lavinia Lau.​

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