‍DALLAS – Cathay Pacific (CX) has released the traffic figures for May 2024, which shows a positive growth from the previous years. CX and its subsidiary HK Express (UO) have surpassed the 10 million mark for passengers carried during the first five months of 2024, where a total of 11.2 million passengers were carried during the period.  

The Hong Kong (HKG) based carrier carried a total of 1,678,532 passengers in May 2024, an increase of 18.4% compared with May 2023. Furthermore, the month’s revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) increased 20.8% year on year.

Despite the decrease of passenger load factor by 4.8 percentage points to 80.3%, the available seat kilometers (ASKs) increased by 28% year on year.  During the first five months of 2024, the number of passengers carried increased by 40.7% to a total of 8,821,895, against a 45.7% increase in ASKs and a 37.5% increase in RPKs, when comparing the same period for 2023.

Demand

Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau highlighted that although the traffic from Hong Kong decreased comparing April 2024, there was a substantial increase in passenger numbers when comparing the same month last year.

“May was, as expected, a slightly quieter period for our travel business compared with previous months as demand slowed down, particularly on our regional routes. Without any long weekend holidays in Hong Kong, we experienced a 4% decrease in passenger numbers compared with April, when multiple holidays drove strong leisure demand. However, compared with the same month last year, passenger numbers were 18% higher.”, said Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau.

Growth in Cargo

Similar to the passenger sector, CX also saw an increase in cargo handled during the period. CX carried 121,088 tonnes of cargo in May 2024, an increase of 10.2% as compared to May 2023. The cargo revenue tonne kilometers (RFTKs) also increased 3.8% year on year. Although the cargo load factor decreased by 2.1 percentage points to 59.4%, available cargo tonne kilometers (AFTKs) increased by 7.5% year on year.

In the first five months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.2% to a total of 594,896 tons, against an 11.8% increase in AFTKs and a 4.4% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.

As stated by Lau, the strong growth in cargo is observed particularly from Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, the Taiwan region, and Southeast Asia. In addition to the increase in general and special cargo tonnage, there was significant movement of high-end electronics, seafood, and consumer products.

Positive Outlook

Cathay Pacific is moving positively as they have reached 80% of pre-pandemic flights in the second quarter of 2024 as planned. With this milestone, the airline now looks forward to reaching 100% within the first quarter of 2025 as more flights and destinations are being added.

In 2024, CX has added many destinations including Chennai (MAA), Colombo (CMB), and Barcelona (BCN), while UO has added Beijing (PKX), Bangkok (DMK), Sanya (SYX), and Clark (CRK). CX now flies to more than 80 destinations around the world. Moreover, the number is expected to increase beyond 90 next year as new destinations are being introduced, including Riyadh (RUH), starting on October 28, 2024.