Cathay Pacific released its traffic figures for July 2024, which showed that the airline achieved a new milestone by carrying more than two million passengers in a single month for the first time since the pandemic.
Cathay Pacific carried a total of 2,008,225 passengers in July 2024, an increase of 15.1% compared with July 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 16.1% year on year. Passenger load factor decreased by 3.8 percentage points to 85.5%, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 21.2% year on year. In the first seven months of 2024, the number of passengers carried increased by 32.5% to a total of 12,667,826, against a 39% increase in ASKs and a 31.6% increase in RPKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
The airline carried 126,797 tonnes of cargo in July 2024, an increase of 9.6% compared with July 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 0.5% year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 58.3%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 2.1% year on year. In the first seven months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.3% to a total of 846,261 tonnes, against a 9.9% increase in AFTKs and a 3.8% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
Cathay reports that Cargo demand remained strong in July with healthy year-on-year tonnage growth. Across its network, tonnage was 2% higher than in June and 10% above July last year. Given July is traditionally a softer month for demand, this was encouraging and bodes well for August. In terms of commodity mix, the carrier observed an uptick in perishable goods shipments from Southeast Asia and the South West Pacific into Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, and increased tonnage through its Cathay Expert services using the dedicated freighters for project shipments and outsized cargo. E-commerce shipments continued to be the main driver of volumes from the Greater Bay Area.
Cathay Pacific continues to enhance its special solutions, and in July, they re-launched Cathay Courier with a focus on digitalisation to add greater transparency and reassurance for customers when they choose to send their urgent shipments with Cathay Cargo. Customers will now be able to track their shipments online. Along with this newly added feature, Cathay Courier provides customers with speed, guaranteed capacity and dedicated handling for their time-sensitive, high-value shipments.
Concerning cargo, Cathay Pacific expects that demand will remain at healthy levels as they head towards what they anticipate will be a strong peak from September until the year-end. The carrier will increase its freighter frequencies on transpacific routes and making full use of its long-haul passenger belly services to cater for customers’ requirements.
