Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 3,127,186 passengers last month – an increase of 4.9% compared to April 2018. The passenger load factor decreased 0.6 percentage points to 83.9%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 8.1%. In the first four months of 2019, the number of passenger carried grew by 4.0% while capacity increased by 6.5%.

The two airlines carried 163,694 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, a drop of 6.2% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 5.5 percentage points to 62.5%. Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was up by 0.9% while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) dropped by 7.3%. In the first four months of 2019, the tonnage fell by 5.3% against a 0.1% increase in capacity and a 5.9% decrease in RFTKs.

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: “We saw year-on-year revenue growth for April in our passenger business only due to shift in Easter holiday. While there was a healthy increase in the number of passengers carried, our load factor remained largely flat because of the significant increase in capacity. The long Easter holiday weekend helped stimulate demand and improve yield on short-haul routes. However overall yield for April still saw a year-on-year decline and such yield pressure is expected to continue in the coming months.

“The decline in air freight demand along major trade lanes continued to adversely affect our cargo business in April. It has led to decline in both volume and yield.  Both are expected to remain difficult for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, we continue to closely monitor the development of US-China trade relationship and its impact on the world trade flows.

“We are also pleased that our commitment to providing specialised cargo solutions was recently recognised when we became the world’s first airline to be awarded CEIV Fresh, the International Air Transportation’s (IATA) globally-recognised accreditation for quality handling of perishable products.”