Cathay Pacific Airways continued to see a rise in passenger traffic in August, driven by the strength of its intra-Asian routes.
The Hong Kong-based airline, along with its sister carrier Dragonair, boarded 2.61 million passengers last month – 4.0% more than in August 2011. Once again East Asian routes we responsible for the growth, with demand for flights to and from Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia both increasing 11.6%. This offset a 7.0% drop in traffic to South Asian & the Middle East and a 7.5% slump on European routes. Cathay’s cabin load factors averaged 83.1%.
“While the overall load factor on the passenger side was above 80%, it dropped below last year’s level in both months of the summer peak,” said Cathay’s General Manager for Revenue Management, James Tong. “A number of typhoons in the region impacted on our business in August, while the Olympics dampened demand to London. We also operated fewer extra sectors over the summer than in 2011. Yield remained under pressure in all cabins.”
Year-to-date, Cathay has now carried 19.43m passengers, up 6.7%, with average load factors of 80.6%.
