The Cathay Group expects to report a profit for the first half of 2023, after posting losses for the past three years amid strict pandemic restrictions.
Lavinia Lau, chief customer and commercial officer, said: “The Cathay Group has seen a strong rebound in the performance of our airlines.
“Our cash flow has continued to improve; further to being overall operating cash generative in 2022, the group has been operating cash generative so far in 2023.”
She also pointed to a one-off gain, estimated to be about HK$1.9 billion (£200 million), in the first half of 2023, after reducing its stake in Air China.
“Taking all of the above into account, together with the offsetting impact of the results from associates, which are reported three months in arrears, we expect that the group will deliver a consolidated profit for the first half of 2023.”
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Her comments came as the group released Cathay Pacific traffic figures for May 2023.
It said in a statement that the airline “continues to make good progress as it rebuilds flight connectivity at the Hong Kong international aviation hub”.
Cathay Pacific carried a total of more than 1.4 million passengers last month, an increase of 2,345% compared with May 2022, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 1,152% year on year.
Lau said: “May was another good month for our travel business. We continued to progressively increase our passenger flight capacity and added more frequencies to popular destinations in the US, South Asia and Japan.
“The peak summer season looks promising as we expect to get a boost from students returning to Hong Kong after the school term ends.
“On rebuilding our network, we will bring back the seasonal Christchurch service from December 16, 2023, through to February 29, 2024, with three return flights per week, following the earlier announcement of service resumption to Johannesburg and Chicago from August and October 2023, respectively.”