Cathay Pacific Sees Strong Demand And Capacity Increase

Cathay Pacific has published its traffic figures for September, providing a view of continued recovery at the Hong Kong-based company.

How Did Cathay Pacific Perform?

Cathay Pacific says off the back of solid travel demand, carrying 1,524,144 passengers in the month just gone.

Such a figure represented a staggering 480% increase compared to the same month one year prior.

The increase highlights how Cathay Pacific has seen the re-opening of Hong Kong, and the rebuild of its network has only continued to expand.

Meanwhile, the month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased another further 316% as well, representing solid performance levels.

Additionally, passenger load factors increased to 83.7%. This grew 11.2%, while their available seat kilometres (ASKs) grew 260.4% year-on-year.

So far, 2023 has been a hugely positive year for the company. The airline says that the number of passengers has increased by 1,099%.

How Many Aircraft Remain In Storage?

Cathay Pacific currently has 30 in-storage aircraft per the latest fleet data.

The fleet in storage has eight units from the A330-300 series. 6 Boeing 777-300s alongside 6 777-300ERs. Meanwhile, 5 Airbus A330-300s are also in storage, alongside one lone A350-900.

The airline has 2 Airbus A320-200s and 2 Airbus A321-200s in storage for its narrowbody fleet.

Ultimately, while still representing a significant portion of the fleet grounded, it is a substantial improvement from where the airline was one year ago when even more of its fleet was rendered useless.

Comments From Executive

As we exited the busy peak summer months for passenger travel, we saw increased student traffic in September ahead of the start of the new school year, in particular to the UK. To cater for the strong demand, we increased the frequency of our flights between Hong Kong and the UK in September, with our services from Hong Kong achieving load factors of 98%.

Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau

On the cargo side, September marked the start of the traditional peak period and demand strengthened across most of the network compared with the previous month. Capacity also grew as passenger services were added on some key cargo routes.

Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau