Cathay Pacific traffic rises 25% in July

Its operations were, however, affected by the travel ban in COVID-19 high-risk territories.

Cathay Pacific carried some 54,092 passengers in July, up 25.8% compared to the same month last year, but slipped 3% month-on-month.

Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam noted this is only 7.1% of the airline’s passenger capacity in July 2019, ahead of the pandemic.

“Transit traffic from the Chinese Mainland to the US and Canada remained robust. On top of that, we captured a few pockets of demand for flights from the Chinese Mainland to Southeast Asia, in particular to Jakarta and Hanoi,” Lam said in a statement.

“The increase in demand compensated for the loss of traffic from flights that remained suspended last month, notably from the UK, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Meanwhile, we resumed passenger services to Auckland, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Tel Aviv, and Wuhan.”

Lam added the airline targets to increase its capacity to 30% of its pre-pandemic level by the fourth quarter of the year, noting that it will be dependent on the easing of entry requirements as well as the rollout of the vaccine programme.

“Looking ahead on the passenger front, student traffic to the US and the UK is expected to give us a slight boost to our business in August and September, respectively,” he said, adding that flights on peak dates have already been fully booked.

Meanwhile, flights on earlier departure dates are also likely to see increased bookings as demand continues to come in.

“We also marked the inaugural flight of our new Airbus A321neo to Shanghai (Pudong) earlier this month, as we progressively resume more flights to the Chinese Mainland and the region.”