Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has released its traffic figures for October 2024. The figures, announced on November 21, 2024, show that the airline operated over 10,000 passenger and cargo flight sectors in a single month for the first time in 2024.
The airline carried a total of 2,014,105 passengers in October 2024, an increase of 19.6% compared with October 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) which measures revenue earned, increased 19.1% year-on-year. The airline’s network load factor decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 83.1%, largely due to its available seat kilometers (ASKs) increasing by 21.3% year-on-year. In the first ten months of 2024, the cumulative number of passengers carried by Cathay Pacific increased by 27.4% to a total of 18,567,818, against a 32.7% increase in ASKs and a 26.8% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
“October was another good month for our travel business, with strong demand for both leisure and business travel resulting in a solid load factor of 83% across our network,” said Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau. “We saw considerable leisure traffic from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland to destinations in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and Europe over the National Day ‘Golden Week’ holiday at the beginning of the month. The Chung Yeung Festival long weekend in Hong Kong also stimulated robust demand from our home city to various short-haul destinations around Asia, with Japan as the most popular choice among our customers.”
“Meanwhile, business traffic also remained strong, driven by the various exhibitions and conventions in Hong Kong as well as the Canton Fair in nearby Guangzhou. This resulted in October seeing the highest number of passengers in our premium cabins of any month since the pandemic”, she added.
“Last month, we celebrated the launch of our non-stop passenger service between Hong Kong and Riyadh. This service has been well received by our customers, with considerable demand originating from Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia,” Lau concluded.
Cargo performance
On the freight side of its operation, the airline carried 142,323 tonnes of cargo in October 2024, an increase of 14.3% compared with October 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometers (RFTKs) increased 9.8% year on year. The cargo load factor increased by 0.8 percentage points to 61.5%, while available cargo tonne kilometers (AFTKs) increased by 8.4% year on year. In the first 10 months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.4% to a total of 1,245,899 tonnes, against an 8.8% increase in AFTKs and a 4.1% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
“The traditional cargo peak season continued in October, with tonnage 7% higher than the previous month and 14% above October last year,” said Lau. “Our cargo business continued to perform well despite various seasonal holidays. This momentum was driven not only by demand from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland but also from our broader network, particularly the Americas.”
“While general cargo demand continued to grow during this period, we also noted an increase in shipments through our Cathay Expert services due to machinery movements out of Northeast Asia. Demand for Cathay Priority also maintained its upward trend, reflecting a stronger need from shippers to replenish inventory ahead of the upcoming festivals and year-end sales events,” Lau added.
Outlook
“Looking ahead, we are projecting a strong Christmas travel peak, with Japan anticipated to be a top destination for outbound travel from our home market,” Lau said, commenting on the carrier’s immediate outlook. “We are also expecting considerable inbound demand from North America, the United Kingdom, and other destinations in Europe as customers travel to visit friends and relatives.”
“In terms of new destinations, Cathay Pacific’s seasonal service of three flights per week between Hong Kong and Cairns will launch on December 17, 2024. Recently, we also announced the resumption of Cathay Pacific’s non-stop passenger services to and from Hyderabad starting on March 30, 2025, further enhancing our network presence in India. Additionally, HK Express (Cathay’s low-cost subsidiary) launched thrice-weekly passenger flights between Hong Kong and Hiroshima at the start of November, increasing to four return flights per week in January 2025.
“For cargo, the robust demand we have been seeing is expected to continue throughout the rest of the peak season, driven by e-commerce, high-tech, and electronic goods from the Chinese Mainland, Southeast Asia, as well as perishables from South West Pacific and the Americas,” Lau ended.