Even as bookings improve and flights are restored, the airline is still a long way from breaking even
Cathay Pacific's passenger numbers last month slumped almost 75 per cent year on year, showing the full impact of the Sars outbreak.
The airline carried 243,976 passengers, with daily traffic of about 7,870.
'The drop in passenger numbers in April sharpened further in May,' said Ian Shiu, general manager for revenue management, sales and distribution.
Revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), the distance flown by paying passengers, fell 67.5 per cent to 1.2 billion last month. Worst hit were the North Asia routes, slumping 87.5 per cent to 73.27 million RPKs.
Cathay cut its passenger flights by 45 per cent last month because of a lack of demand. It had parked 22 aircraft by the end of the month.
Average seat kilometres dropped 41.6 per cent to 2.9 billion while the load factor fell 32.9 percentage points to 41.4 per cent.