Hong Kong’s Covid clampdown saw Cathay Pacific suffer a 99% drop in passenger carryings last month over January in pre-pandemic 2019.
The airline flew fewer than 25,000 passengers, down by almost 19% year-on-year, and warned that a “highly reduced” schedule of just 2% of pre-Covid capacity will run until at least the end of March.
The figures continued to reflect the airline’s substantial capacity reductions in response to “significantly reduced” demand as well as travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in place in Hong Kong and other markets amid the ongoing global pandemic.
Chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam said: “We’ve had a very difficult start to 2022 with the accelerated spread of the Omicron variant and the further tightening of travel and operational restrictions, notably stricter quarantine requirements for Hong Kong-based aircrew.
“As a result, Cathay Pacific’s passenger flight capacity in January reduced by about 82% compared with December 2021, to about 2.1% of pre-Covid-19 levels. Meanwhile, passenger numbers dropped to an average of 797 per day. Load factor was about 40%.
“Both inbound and transit traffic were limited by the enhanced restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong SAR Government, while outbound demand also remained weak.
“Passenger traffic in January was largely generated from ex-Chinese mainland flights via the Hong Kong hub to long-haul destinations in Australia, the US and the UK. We also saw some pre-Lunar New Year traffic between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.”
He added: “Looking ahead in February and beyond, we will continue to operate a highly reduced passenger flight schedule until at least the end of March in view of the extension of quarantine measures for Hong Kong-based aircrew, the flight-specific and place-specific suspension mechanism as well as the transit ban by the Hong Kong SAR government.
“We will continue to strive to maintain passenger connectivity to key destinations as much as possible, although we are currently not seeing any signs of significant recovery in passenger travel demand.
“We expect to continue operating about 2% of our pre-Covid-19 passenger flight capacity while current restrictions remain in place.
“We are also continuing to support Hong Kong’s fight against the pandemic with critical supplies of medical products.
“In addition to Covid-19 vaccines, we have shipped more than five million rapid antigen test kits (190 tonnes) from the Chinese mainland this week, with more to come.”