Return to Stories
Cathay Pacific Group releases combined traffic figures for February 2019

Cathay Pacific Group releases combined traffic figures for February 2019

Cathay Pacific Group today released combined Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon traffic figures for February 2019 that show an increase in the number of passengers carried and a drop in cargo and mail uplifted compared to the same month in 2018.

 

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 2,833,534 passengers last month – an increase of 1.0% compared to February 2018. The passenger load factor decreased 2.4 percentage points to 81.7%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 5.9%. In the first two months of 2019, the number of passenger carried grew by 4.3% while capacity increased by 6.5%.

 

The two airlines carried 131,320 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, a decrease of 9.9% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 5.0 percentage points to 60.7%. Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), decreased by 1.8% while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) dropped by 9.3%. In the first two months of 2019, the tonnage fell by 6.4% against a 0.4% dip in capacity and a 7.1% decrease in RFTKs.

 

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: “It is important to highlight that the early Chinese New Year holiday resulted in distortion in both passenger and cargo revenue growth for January and February.

 

“The holiday was characterised by strong demand and yield growth on short-haul routes in Asia, but overall passenger volumes softened sharply in the weeks after, especially in Economy Class. As a result, revenue growth was not able to keep up with capacity increases in February.

 

“It was a similar story with cargo with slower demand pick-up after the holiday when compared with last year, especially out of mainland China and Hong Kong. We did however see good growth from Southeast Asia markets. We reduced some freighter capacity in February to match demand better.” 

 

CATHAY PACIFIC / CATHAY DRAGON COMBINED TRAFFIC

FEB

% Change

Cumulative

%

Change

 

2019

VS FEB 18

 

FEB 2019

 

YTD

 

RPK (000)

 

 

 

 

 - Mainland China

736,360

-7.2%

1,505,481

-0.5%

 - North East Asia

1,355,848

2.9%

2,779,856

5.4%

 - South East Asia

1,367,463

3.2%

2,887,360

4.7%

- South Asia, Middle East  & Africa

806,551

11.0%

1,821,285

14.1%

 - South West Pacific

1,457,708

5.5%

3,069,396

4.4%

 - North America

2,582,178

2.4%

5,909,907

7.4%

 - Europe

2,007,947

2.4%

4,394,222

7.5%

RPK Total (000)

10,314,055

2.9%

22,367,507

6.3%

Passengers carried

2,833,534

1.0%

5,960,971

4.3%

RFTK Total (000)

750,152

-9.3%

1,654,160

-7.1%

Cargo and mail carried (000Kg)

131,320

-9.9%

298,055

-6.4%

Number of flights

6,378

0.9%

13,401

1.5%

 

CATHAY PACIFIC / CATHAY DRAGON COMBINED CAPACITY

FEB

% Change

Cumulative

%

Change

 

2019

VS FEB 18

 

FEB 2019

YTD

 

ASK (000)

 

 

 

 

 - Mainland China

905,099

-2.5%

1,920,625

-0.9%

 - North East Asia

1,671,620

3.5%

3,379,007

4.8%

 - South East Asia

1,648,716

4.6%

3,448,867

4.5%

- South Asia, Middle East  & Africa

1,036,237

11.7%

2,239,966

13.7%

 - South West Pacific

1,685,442

0.4%

3,574,116

1.3%

 - North America

3,170,510

8.7%

6,824,314

8.6%

 - Europe

2,510,811

10.0%

5,245,728

10.4%

ASK Total (000)

12,628,435

5.9%

26,632,623

6.5%

Passenger load factor

81.7%

-2.4pt

84.0%

-0.1pt

AFTK Total (000)

1,235,247

-1.8%

2,703,799

-0.4%

Cargo and mail load factor

60.7%

-5.0pt

61.2%

-4.4pt

ATK (000)

2,435,789

1.8%

5,235,989

2.8%