Cathay Pacific reported robust business travel in May, helping to offset a decline in leisure travel from Hong Kong. The airline, along with its sister carrier HK Express, achieved 80% of pre-pandemic passenger flight levels in the second quarter and is on track to fully recover by the first quarter of 2025 as it adds more flights and destinations.
The combined passenger count for Cathay Pacific and HK Express exceeded 10 million in the first five months of the year, totaling 11.2 million. In May, Cathay Pacific alone carried nearly 1.7 million passengers, an 18.4% increase over May 2023. However, the load factor decreased by 4.8 percentage points to 80.3% due to increased capacity. Overall, the number of passengers carried in the first five months surged by 40.7% to 8.8 million.
Lavinia Lau, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, noted that May was expected to be quieter compared to previous months, with demand slowing particularly on regional routes. The absence of long-weekend holidays in Hong Kong led to a 4% drop in passenger numbers compared to April, although there was an 18% increase compared to May last year.
Despite the dip in leisure travel from Hong Kong, there was heightened demand from Southeast Asia due to school holidays. Long-haul services were bolstered by returning student traffic from North America to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, resulting in 90% load factors on US and Canada routes.
Business travel remained strong, with high sales in Hong Kong supporting traffic on routes to the Chinese mainland, North America, and the United Kingdom.
Cathay Pacific’s network currently includes over 80 global destinations, a number expected to rise to 90 by next year with new additions such as Riyadh, starting on October 28, 2024.