Cathay Pacific Releases Traffic Figures for September 2022

Cathay Pacific Airways - Boeing 777-300 (B-KPI) - AB II - AirTeamImages.com

On Monday, October 17, Cathay Pacific released its passenger traffic figures for September 2022. The airline carried 265,845 passengers last month, a growth of 101.7% compared to September last year but a decrease of 89% compared to the pre-pandemic level in September 2019.

Monthly passenger-kilometer revenue (RPK) increased 102.2% year-on-year but decreased 84.1% compared to September 2019. Factors and cargo, meanwhile, saw an increase of 26.7 percentage points to 72.5%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), increased 27.8% year-on-year but decreased by 83.8% compared to September 2019 levels.

According to the airline, in the first months of 2022 (January - September), the number of passengers carried increased by 124.7% compared with a 6.7% increase in capacity and a 130.6% increase in RPKs compared to the same period last year. 

Cathay Pacific Airways Fleet Utilization provided by AirNav RadarBox 

Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Ronald Lam commented: “Cathay Pacific’s travel business continued to show improvement in September, helped by student traffic from both Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Overall passenger numbers further increased month-on-month to over 8,800 per day, while load factor was 72.5%. Passenger flight capacity stood at about 16% of pre-pandemic levels." “Demand for student travel to the US tapered down from the second week of September, but this was balanced by growing demand among UK-bound student traffic. “As such, we increased the number of flights operated between Hong Kong and the UK from 111 sectors in August to 134 in September, with load factor on flights to London reaching 96%. “We also added capacity on flights to Japan and Southeast Asia. “Aside from student traffic, inbound traffic to Hong Kong also improved, largely driven by demand from the US and Canada." - Concludes Ronald. 

He also states, "The removal of hotel quarantine arrangements for passengers arriving in Hong Kong was a very welcome development that has helped boost sentiment for travel. “In the last week of September, we saw a considerable increase in demand for flights to Singapore, Bangkok and Seoul. “Looking ahead, we remain focused on adding as many passenger flights as we can and have already added more than 400 flight sectors in October to and from regional and long-haul destinations since the September announcements by the Government. “We have resumed passenger flights to five destinations this month – Madrid, Milan, Dubai, Kathmandu, and Bengaluru – bringing our total number of destinations to 51 in October.". 

Cathay Pacific Airways Route Heatmap provided by AirNav RadarBox 

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