Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary Dragonair carried 6.8 per cent more passengers year on year last month but saw a drop in percentage of seats sold, or the so-called load factor, due to the lower than expected growth in Northeast Asia. The carriers flew 2.24 million passengers last month while the load factor dropped 2.5 percentage points to 81.3 per cent, the first decline in 16 months. Cargo volume grew 8.9 per cent but the cargo load factor fell 7.1 percentage points to 67.8 per cent. The demand out of Hong Kong and mainland markets were softer than anticipated.