Annual losses for Cathay Pacific Group in 2022 are projected to be marginally worse than the previous year despite a relaxation of Hong Kong travel curbs and quarantine restrictions.
The company is expected to record a consolidated loss attributable to shareholders of about HK$6.4-7 billion compared to HK$5.5 billion for 2021.
Cathay Pacific carried 801,088 passengers last month, an increase of 768.7% compared with December 2021, but a 73.3% decrease compared with the pre-pandemic level in December 2019.
Looking ahead at 2023 and beyond, the group will continue on the path to rebuilding its airlines and the Hong Kong international aviation hub.
The second-half 2022 results for the group’s airlines and subsidiaries were described as a “marked improvement” over the first-half, although still a small loss overall for the full year, Cathay said.
Chief executive Ronald Lam said: “December saw a drastic uptick in travel demand with Christmas being the first major holiday since travel restrictions in Hong Kong were lifted, although we were still only operating about 32% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels. We carried over 25,800 passengers per day on average.
“Demand was overwhelming for travel to short-haul leisure destinations as we continued to ramp up our frequencies. We also added more destinations in December, including Sapporo, Fukuoka, Penang and Dhaka, ending the year with close to 60 destinations in our network – double the 29 we flew to in January 2022.”
He added: “I am very encouraged to see a trend of continuous improvement in our operations and financial performance for our airlines and subsidiaries in the second half of 2022.
“Progressive relaxations to travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Hong Kong enabled us to be operating cash generative overall in the second half of 2022.
“Looking ahead into 2023, we are very excited to be firmly on the path to rebuilding Cathay Pacific and the Hong Kong international aviation hub. Nevertheless, challenges still remain and we are taking a measured and responsible approach to our rebuilding efforts.
“We remain fully committed to restoring connectivity and capacity at our home hub. As a group, which includes passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, we anticipate we will be operating about 70% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity by the end of 2023 with the aim of returning to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024.
“In terms of passenger travel, we expect demand will continue to be strong in January and the Chinese New Year period, driven by leisure traffic from Hong Kong. Following the return of quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, we are continuing to add more flights and more destinations as quickly as is feasible.
“We aim to operate more than 100 return flights per week to and from 14 cities in the Chinese mainland by the end of February.”