Cathay Pacific’s figures show that it transported about 2.3 million passengers in June—a jump of 25.2% compared to the previous year—while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by just over a quarter at 26.2%. For the first half of the year, passenger numbers rose by nearly 28%.
Lau commented: “Cathay Pacific set a new post-pandemic record by carrying over 90,000 passengers on 28 June, while also achieving its highest single-day load factor so far this year of 93.4% on the same day.
“Following a quieter start to the month, demand picked up supported by various traffic flows, most notably inbound student traffic from the United Kingdom and the United States. Our recently launched services to Rome and Munich have also been well received by customers. Regionally, while demand for Japan softened out of Hong Kong, there was a marked increase in traffic to destinations across Southeast Asia and the Chinese Mainland. The outlook for our long-haul routes continues to be robust for the summer period.”
On the cargo side, available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs) rose by five percent but load factor declined slightly by just over one percentage point compared with last year.
Lau explained: “Our cargo business continued to see year-on-year growth in June, largely due to tariff timelines and resulting market behaviour. We observed significant growth in tonnage from Southeast Asia and the Taiwan region to the Americas, driven by both general cargo and high-tech electronics. Our Cathay Pharma solution also performed well across long-haul trade lanes in particular. For July, we expect demand uncertainties to persist and we will continue to closely monitor developments over the coming weeks.”
HK Express recorded an increase as well; it carried more than half a million passengers during June—a rise of almost seventeen percent from last year—with available seat kilometres growing even faster at just above thirty-two percent.
According to Lau: “HK Express has continued to expand its network. In addition to launching flights to Cheongju, Daegu and Miyako (Shimojishima) in June, the airline has also announced new routes to Guiyang launching at the end of this month, Kuala Lumpur (Subang) in the beginning of August, and Kota Kinabalu in November. While these new and unique destinations will further enhance the connectivity of our Hong Kong international aviation hub, they require time and investment in market awareness to stimulate demand. Coupled with softened travel demand for Japan, which constitutes a significant share of HK Express’s capacity, this led to a much reduced load factor in June.”
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