Cathay Pacific passenger arrivals to Hong Kong down 46 per cent year on year amid intense anti-government protests in November
- Airline reports a fourth consecutive monthly decline in passengers carried globally
- But shortfall in inbound advance bookings has been partially offset by improvement in transit passenger traffic
The airline also reported a fourth consecutive monthly decline in passengers carried globally, down 9 per cent to 2.62 million customers, with planes full 80.1 per cent on average, down 3.2 percentage points.
Ronald Lam Siu-por, Cathay Pacific’s chief customer and commercial officer, said November was “very challenging” for the airline, and travel sentiments were “still weak”.
“Overall, our expectation is that the rest of 2019 will remain incredibly challenging,” Lam said.
“We continue to see a significant shortfall in inbound advance bookings for Hong Kong, particularly from mainland China and other regional markets, as compared to the same period last year. This shortfall has been partially offset by the improvement in transit passenger traffic,” he added.
Hong Kong’s flagship airline earlier said its profit expectations in the second half of 2019 would be “significantly” less than that of the first half.