Cathay Pacific, Dragonair flew almost 2.9m passengers in August

That's a 3.6% jump.

Cathay Pacific Airways has released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for August 2014 that show a year-on-year increase in both the number of passengers carried and the amount of cargo and mail uplifted.

According to a release from Cathay Pacific, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,849,359 passengers in August – an increase of 3.6% compared to the same month in 2013.

The passenger load factor rose by 0.5 percentage points to 87.2% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 7.1%. For the year to the end of August, the passenger volume rose by 5.8% while capacity was up 5.6%.

Here's more from Cathay Pacific:

The two airlines carried 146,955 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 19.7% compared to August 2013. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 3.8 percentage points to 62.5%.

Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 13.3% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown were up by 20.6%.

For the year to the end of August, tonnage rose by 11.3% while capacity was up by 11.4% and RTKs increased by 14.3%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Patricia Hwang said: “August was the busiest month of the year so far for our passenger business with new highs recorded for passenger volumes on both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair.

Demand on long-haul routes was strong throughout August and our business to and from North America was helped by the introduction of additional frequencies on the Chicago route.

We saw an encouraging pick-up in demand to Bangkok, but Korea remained the most popular destination for leisure travellers out of Hong Kong. Demand in the premium cabins continued to be ahead of expectations.”

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing Mark Sutch said: “Demand remained robust throughout August and the year-on-year tonnage increase was again well above expectations.

Demand out of Hong Kong and the key manufacturing regions in Mainland China remained strong and we hope to see a further uptick in September as new consumer IT products are launched in the market.

The Americas remain the key focus of our cargo business and we will extend our presence further with a new freighter service to Calgary and increased frequencies to Columbus in October, and more flights to Mexico from November.”