Cathay Pacific passenger and freight loads increase strongly

Cathay Pacific Airways reported improved cargo and passenger loads last month compared with the same month a year earlier.

Surprisingly, the volume of passenger traffic on Cathay's transpacific routes fell during the month, despite a sharp cut in capacity from a year earlier.

The airline said the number of paying passengers rose 6.5 percentage points for the month to 74.4 per cent, slightly below the 78.1 per cent in average loads for the first five months.

Cargo and mail rose by 6.8 percentage points to 69.5 per cent.

Ian Shiu, Cathay general manager for revenue management, sales and distribution, said: '[A] surge in exports is sustaining the recovery in cargo volumes. Passenger traffic has also recovered but business travel demand remains relatively weak, and yields are still soft.'

Cathay's overall passenger traffic volume fell 0.8 per cent to 3.7 million revenue per kilometres (RPK) during the month.

Traffic across the Pacific and to South Africa fell 9.3 per cent to 1.4 million RPK despite a 17.9 per cent drop in capacity on the route.