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Battered by COVID-19 restrictions, Cathay Pacific sees some improvement in passenger traffic
October 20th 2021
Hong Kong’s strict COVID-19 restrictions resulted in September passenger numbers at Cathay Pacific Airways to fall into a now familiar pattern remaining 94% below pre-pandemic levels. Read More » But a 180% jump in passengers compared with the same months last year provided a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered carrier - thanks mainly to student travel. The airline transported 131,774 passengers last month and experienced its busiest day — September 17 — since March 2020. In a sign of how badly pandemic restrictions have hobbled the airline, however, that highlight translated to just 6562 passengers. Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres rose 158.7% year-on-year. Capacity increased by 40.4 %, but was still 87.4% down on September 2019 levels. Passenger load factor increased by 20.9 percentage points year-on-year, to 45.8%. The carrier’s chief commercial officer, Ronald Lam, said student traffic from the China contributed strongly to the performance of the passenger business. “As was anticipated, demand for student travel to the U.S. was strong at the beginning of the month but tapered down before being overtaken by growing student traffic from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland to the UK,’’ he said. “Besides, passengers travelling within Asia via Hong Kong also was a key driver for demand. In contrast, passenger demand for flights into Hong Kong remained very weak due to the strict quarantine requirements.” Lam said student traffic to London continued into October.
