Cathay Pacific's passenger volume plummets 99.6% in April

It expects daily passenger volume to remain low in May.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon’s passenger volume plummeted 99.6% YoY to 13,729 passengers in April, according to a press release.

The group’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) shrank 99.3% YoY. Passenger load factor plunged 62.3ppt to 21.7%, whilst capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), contracted 97.3%.

At the same time, the two airlines saw a 48.3% YoY fall in cargo and mail to 84,634 tonnes. Revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) fell 37.3%, whilst capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), slipped 44.1%. In contrast, cargo and mail load factor climbed 7.6ppt to 70.1%.

According to Cathay Pacific Group chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam, they have been operating only a bare skeleton passenger flight schedule, serving 14 destinations in April. They carried fewer than 500 passengers per day, and expects this to continue in May.

“As Hong Kong’s home carriers, we do not have the benefit of a domestic passenger network as a buffer. We already announced that we will continue to operate a minimal schedule over the next two months,” Lam said.

In the first four months of 2020, the number of passengers carried crashed 64.4% YoY, against a 49.9% fall in capacity and a 59.1% drop in RPKs. Meanwhile, tonnage fell by 26.6% against a 25.4% drop in capacity and a 20.6% decline in RFTKs.