Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 2,980,654 passengers last month – a drop of 0.8% compared to April 2017. The passenger load factor decreased 1.9 percentage points to 84.5%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 0.9%. In the first four months of 2018, the number of passenger carried grew by 2.0% while capacity increased by 3.1%.

The two airline s carried 174,489 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 6.7% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.3 percentage points to 68.0%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 4.2% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 7.9%. In the first four months of 2018, the tonnage rose by 7.8% against a 4.7% increase in capacity and a 7.7% increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: “The earlier start to the Easter holidays this year resulted in a reduction in backend demand during April when compared to last year. However, we enjoyed a high frontend load factor during the month and yield improvements helped offset the loss in traffic volume. Our routes to Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States performed well, as did those to mainland China and Taiwan.

“Meanwhile, the positive momentum in our cargo business continued into April. Tonnage grew ahead of capacity while yield strengthened. After a slight slow-down in our Hong Kong and mainland China markets early in the month, volumes started to pick up again during the month and network flow from the Americas, Europe, India, Japan and Southeast Asia continued to show strength.”