Airline passenger number up by 8.7%

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,181,995 passengers in November.

Cathay Pacific said that Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair traffic figures for November 2010 that showed an increase in the number of passengers and amount of cargo and mail carried compared to the same month last year, together with a significant increase in capacity.

Passenger number is up 8.7% on the same month in 2009. The passenger load factor was down by 1.5 percentage points to 80.5%, while capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), was up by 11.2%. For the year to date, the number of passengers carried is up 11.0% compared to an ASK rise of 4.6%.

The two airlines carried 153,572 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, up 8.4% on November last year. The cargo and mail load factor was down 5.2 percentage points to 71.6%, while capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 21.6%. For the year to date, tonnage has grown by 18.7% and cargo/mail tonne kilometres by 23.9% compared to a capacity increase of 14.9%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Tom Owen said: "Demand held up well across the network in November. There was a drop in the Economy Class load factor compared to the same month in 2009, as a result of the significant increase in capacity over the same period and the strengthening base we saw in November 2009. The Hong Kong market remained robust, and we continued to see good passenger demand on our China routes and within the region. Premium demand saw an increase in revenue quality and volumes across most routes when compared to the same period in 2009."

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing James Woodrow said: "The cargo peak season continued throughout November with good demand and yields out of Hong Kong on all key routes. The load factor remained high, despite a big increase in capacity year on year, helped by good support from our contract agent partners. We operated according to our full freighter schedule and continued to mount extra sectors and charters where possible in line with market demand."