Cathay Pacific more than doubles its passengers in June

However, this is still below 2019 figures.

Cathay Pacific carried 150,077 passengers in June 2022, a 269.2% increase compared to the same period last year due to added flights to cater to pent-up travel demand. 

This figure is a 95.2% decline compared to June 2019, the airline said in a statement.

The revenue passenger kilometres in June also grew 320.2% year-on-year (YoY) but declined 91.7% compared to June 2019.

Passenger load factor rose by 45.3 percentage points to 67%, whilst capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 36.2% year-on-year, but went down by 89.3% compared with pre-pandemic levels.

In the first quarter of 2022, the count of passengers carried went up by 113.5% against a “26.6% decrease in capacity and a 129.8% increase in RPKs, as compared to the same period for 2021.”

Cathay Pacific Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said additional flights deployed helped in boosting connectivity to their passengers, especially those from Mainland China, which implemented zero COVID-19 measures.

Despite these increases, Lam noted that they still operated 11% of their 2019 capacity.

“Load factor increased to 67% and we carried on average more than 5,000 passengers per day,” said Lam.