Cathay Pacific saw strong demand on routes from the UK in July as students returned to Hong Kong for the summer.
But overall passenger numbers of just under 220,000 were down 93% on the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.
The figure compared to rival Singapore Airlines carrying two million passenger last month.
While Covid-19 travel restrictions are gradually being lifted by Hong Kong authorities, Cathay Pacific still faces the need for air crew to quarantine on their return to its base.
Chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam said: “Looking ahead on the travel side, the latest adjustments to quarantine arrangements for passengers arriving in Hong Kong are expected to have a positive impact on inbound traffic as well as leisure travel among Hong Kong residents.
“Student traffic to the US and UK is also expected to provide our travel business with a strong boost in August and September.
“However, our ability to add more passenger flight capacity will remain limited unless the restrictions on our air crew are lifted.”
July’s passenger load factor increased by 44.7 percentage points to more than 73% year-on-year.
Lam said: “We continued to add more passenger flight capacity in July in light of the Hong Kong SAR government’s progressive adjustments to travel and quarantine restrictions.
“Capacity increased by 24% compared to June, although it remained low at 12.4% of the pre-pandemic level.
“Passenger volume increased to an average of over 7,000 per day. Meanwhile, passenger load factor reached 73.3% – the highest it’s been since the start of the pandemic.
“The additional capacity we were able to operate provided enhanced connectivity options for our customers transiting through the Hong Kong hub, with demand from the Chinese Mainland to Australia and the US particularly robust.
“We also saw strong demand on our UK routes, especially from students returning to Hong Kong. As many of these flights were full, some of this student traffic shifted to our other European gateways such as Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
“Meanwhile, we were able to resume carrying passengers to Fuzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan in the Chinese mainland again following adjustments to local capacity restrictions.”