Passenger numbers for Hong Kong’s Cathay go sky high with 27% increase
Cathay Pacific Airways and budget arm HK Express carried more than 36 million passengers in 2025 on the back of tourist growth
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and its budget arm carried more than 36 million passengers in 2025, up 27 per cent from the previous year, on the back of growth in tourist numbers.
Cathay Group said on Wednesday that the number of passengers handled by its premium carrier grew by 26.5 per cent to 28.87 million last year, while the figure for HK Express rose by 29.7 per cent to 7.91 million.
The company said the growth in passenger numbers was related to a “significant expansion in passenger capacity”, with the group seeing a more than 25 per cent increase in terms of available seat kilometres from 2024.
In December alone, passenger numbers for Cathay Pacific and HK Express increased by 21.8 per cent and 24.1 per cent year on year, respectively.
Cathay recorded about 2.74 million passengers last month, while its budget arm carried more than 781,000 in the same period.
According to official figures, Hong Kong welcomed 49.89 million tourists in 2025, an increase of 12 per cent from the previous year.
Lavinia Lau Hoi-zee, Cathay’s chief customer and commercial officer, attributed the company’s performance in December to strong travel demand over the festive season.