Cathay Pacific Airways released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for November 2014 that show passenger volumes increasing compared to the same month last year, but failing to keep pace with the growth in capacity. The two carriers carried a total of 2,569,508 passengers in November – an increase of 3.7 per cent compared to the same month in 2013. The passenger load factor fell by 0.9 percentage points to 80.4 per cent while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 5.0 per cent. For the year to the end of November, passenger volumes were up by 5.4 per cent compared to a 5.9 per cent increase in capacity.
The two airlines carried 165,102 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 12.0 per cent compared to November last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 4.7 percentage points to 68.4 per cent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 5.3 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown were up by 13.1 per cent. For the year to the end of November, tonnage rose by 11.9 per cent while capacity was up 10.7 per cent and RTKs increased by 14.8 per cent.
Patricia Hwang, General Manager Revenue Management, Cathay Pacific said, “The growth in passenger traffic was again below expectations in November. Unlike in the previous month, we believe some of the shortfall was attributable to the protests taking place in Hong Kong. The overall trends were similar to October, with weaker-than-expected demand in the premium cabins and the growth in traffic on North America routes falling well short of the big increase in capacity. The positive areas were North Asia, with traffic to Japan boosted by the depreciation of the yen, and continuing strong demand to and from Europe and Australia/New Zealand.”
