Cathay Pacific’s total passengers skyrocketed by 141.5% YoY in May

However, this is still greatly below pre-pandemic levels.

As travel demand continues to increase, Cathay Pacific served a total of 57,982 year-on-year (YoY) passengers in May 2022, which went up by 141.5% compared to 24,006 passengers in the same period last year.

This figure is, however, a 98% decrease compared to May 2019, Cathay Pacific also noted.

Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific’s chief customer and commercial officer, said loosened travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine policies allowed them to resume more flights as he expects reduction of losses in the first half of 2022.

“Given a strong underlying cargo performance coupled with our cost-management measures implemented over the past two years, our consolidated losses in the first half of 2022, while substantial, are expected to be lower than the consolidated losses reported in the first half of 2021,” Lam said in a statement.

The month’s revenue passenger kilometres was up by 164.4% YoY but was down 97.1% from May 2019. 

For cargo, the airline carried 92,426 tonnes of cargo last month, a similar level as May 2021, but a 45.1% decline compared with the same period in 2019.

As of June, Cathay Pacific is halfway to reaching its goal of 45 destinations. It is looking to open travel activities in Japan and South Korea.

“We also expect transit traffic to improve and become more diversified, in particular between the UK, Australia and New Zealand, as well as North America and Southeast Asia,” read the airline statement.