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No Christmas cheer in bleak Cathay Pacific passenger numbers
December 16th 2021
Cathay Pacific Airways will operate just 12% of its pre-pandemic scheduled passenger traffic for the remainder of December after bleak conditions continued at the airline group in November. Read More » The Hong Kong-based airline carried 70,047 passengers in November, an increase of 85.2% over a year ago, but a 97.3% decrease against pre-pandemic levels in November 2019. Passenger load factor increased by 8.2 percentage points to 26.8%. Capacity was up 29.5%, but was lower by 88.2% compared with two years ago. “As we approach the end of 2021, we continue to face significant challenges, especially for our travel business,’’ said Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer, Ronald Lam. “The emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant has had an impact on sentiment for travel over the holiday season. Furthermore, our ability to operate flights as planned remains affected in light of the latest travel restrictions, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s tightening of quarantine requirements for many of our major markets and the subsequent operational constraints.” The airline continued to closely monitor developments as it reviewed its passenger flight schedule for January and beyond, he said. But there was some Yuletide optimism for the group’s cargo operations. The airline carried 135,350 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 15.8% compared with November 2020, but a 23.9% decrease from the same period in 2019. The cargo load factor rose by 4.3 percentage points to 82.6%. Capacity was up 9.5% year-on-year, but was down 28.6% versus November 2019. “Looking ahead on the cargo side, the strong peak season is expected to last well into December,’’ Lam said. “We expect to operate our full freighter schedule as planned for the rest of the month. Nevertheless, we continue to face operational challenges and we remain agile in planning our cargo flight schedule.”
