Cathay Pacific experienced a decline in passenger traffic in April 2013.
Partially due to the impact of Easter falling in March this year, rather than April, Cathay’s passenger traffic fell 7.0% year-on-year. This was greater that the airline’s 4.8% reduction of seat capacity, causing average cabin load factors to decline 1.9 percentage points to 81.2%.
Trans-Pacific routes saw a significant 15.8% drop in traffic last month, while routes to South Asia and the Middle East fell 6.4% and European routes dropped 5.0%. Northeast Asia (not including China) was the only region seeing growth in April, with a 5.0% rise in traffic.
Cathay’s general manager for revenue management, James Tong, said that Easter was the main reason for the decline, although he admitted that “news about the H7N9 outbreak in Mainland China… had a negative impact on inbound traffic” during April.
In the first four months of the year, Cathay’s passenger traffic has now declined 4.6% following a 6.0% reduction in seat capacity. The airline’s average load factor for 2013 now stands at 81.0%.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair boarded 33.4m passengers in the first four months of 2013.
