Source:
https://scmp.com/business/companies/article/2028213/cathay-and-dragonair-post-higher-passenger-traffic-capacity-grew
Business/ Companies

Cathay and Dragonair post higher passenger traffic but capacity grew faster

Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific Airways and subsidiary Dragonair’s combined passenger traffic grew 1.5 per cent year-on-year last month to 2.67 million, but capacity utilisation dropped to 83.3 per cent from 83.9 per cent as capacity grew a faster 2.6 per cent.

For the first nine months of the year, their combined number of passengers carried rose 1.8 per cent year-on-year, while capacity increased 3.3 per cent.

“Yield [fare per mile] continues to come under pressure in the face of strong competition,” said Patricia Hwang, Cathay’s general manager of revenue management.

The combined September cargo and mail volume rose 7.1 per cent year-on-year. For the nine months, it gained 1.9 per cent, against a 0.5 per cent increase in capacity.

Separately, Shenzhen-based China International Marine Containers, the container manufacturing unit of ports-to-financial s­ervices conglomerate China Merchants Group, expects its net profit for the three months to September 30 to have fallen 5 to 35 per cent year-on-year to between 134 million and 196 million yuan.

It cited China’s sluggish exports and a 1.21 billion provision by its subsidiary CIMC Enric on pre-payments and financial assistance provided by the subsidiary towards the subsidiary’s ill-timed acquisition of natural gas logistics equipment and offshore cranes maker SinoPacific Offshore & Engineering for the poor results.

For the first nine months, China International Marine Containers expects to post a net loss of 86.2 million to 344.9 million yuan, much worse than the net profit of 1.72 billion yuan in the year-earlier period.