Cathay Pacific has released its traffic figures for April 2023, which reflected strong demand for travel during the holiday period. Travel sentiment has remained positive since the beginning of the year and as a result, the Cathay Pacific Group, comprising passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, carried almost six million passengers during the first four months of the year.
Cathay Pacific carried a total of 1,381,073 passengers last month, an increase of 3,283% compared with April 2022. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 3,139% year-on-year. Passenger load factor increased by 31.3 percentage points to 86.9%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 1,973% year-on- year. In the first four months of 2023, the number of passengers carried increased by 3,707% against a 2,116% increase in capacity and a 3,989% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
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The airline carried 109,372 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 18.4% compared with April 2022, when our cargo capacity was significantly reduced due to stricter aircrew quarantine measures. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 93.3% year-on-year. The cargo load factor decreased by 16.6 percentage points to 63.6%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), increased by 143.7% year-on-year. In the first four months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 30.8% against a 168.4% increase in capacity and a 118.1% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
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“On the other hand, demand for our cargo business was impacted by the holiday period in April. As a result, overall tonnage in April was down 10% month on month with a total of 109,372 tonnes carried, while capacity decreased 5% compared with March as we optimised schedules. One area that continues to show positive momentum was e-commerce demand from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland across our network, which remained strong.”
“In terms of cargo, while short-term demand has been affected by the Labour Day and Golden Week holidays at the beginning of May, we expect it to improve over the subsequent weeks. We are continuing to adjust our freighter network to reflect any significant changes in trade flows and business opportunities. As the belly capacity from our passenger operations grows, we are able to offer more choices to our customers and we continue to see good demand momentum with our specialist cargo solutions across the expanding network.”
