Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 2,843,893 passengers last month – an increase of 7.9% compared to November 2016. The passenger load factor increased 0.1 percentage points to 83.6%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 6.4%. In the first eleven months of 2017, the number of passenger carried increased by 1.3% while capacity rose by 2.7%.

The two airline s carried 187,545 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 12% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 3.5 percentage points to 71.6%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 5.9% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 11.2%. In the first eleven months of 2017, the tonnage rose by 11.0% against a 3.4% increase in capacity and an 8.9% increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: “Passenger revenue in November continued its recent upward trend. Helped by increased capacity compared to the same period in 2016, when there were authority-imposed flight reductions in Hong Kong, we saw improvements in frontend volumes, which spurred yield growth. Backend traffic was equally robust; demand on routes to Canada, Europe, and the UK was very strong, while Japan’s ‘Autumn Leaves’ season – known locally as koyo – drove good demand from Hong Kong and various Southeast Asia sales territories, including Singapore.

“In terms of cargo, our high year-on-year tonnage growth reflects the overall strength in the world’s air cargo markets. E-commerce related movements were boosted by events such as Chinese Singles’ Day, which helped to even out the traditional dip in demand following the Thanksgiving holiday, and we saw high load factors and improving yields. We broke our weekly tonnage uplift record in the week starting 26 November, while a number of key markets across our network also established new revenue records during the month. The outlook remains positive and is expected to carry through until Christmas.”