Cathay Group is close to operating 60% of pre-pandemic passenger capacity as carryings hit two million in a month for the first time since Covid.
The milestone was achieved last month by Cathay Pacific and low cost arm HK Express.
Cathay Pacific carried 1.7 million passengers last month, an increase of 694% over July 2022 with the load factor up by 16 percentage points to 89.3%.
The figures covering the start of the summer peak travel period came as the company unveiled plans for a new business class.
Aria Suite will introduced on Cathay Pacific’s long-haul Boeing 777-300ER fleet in the second quarter of next year. More details are due to be disclosed in the coming months.
Chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau said: “July marks the beginning of the traditional summer peak for passenger travel, and we are very pleased to see that demand has been strong.
“We continued to add back more capacity for our customers – 11% more compared with June – primarily on our North America, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia services catering to the rising demand for visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and leisure travel.
“Long-haul flights both to and from Hong Kong were especially popular in the first half of the month among VFR travellers. Subsequently, with the start of the school holidays in mid-July, there was a substantial increase in demand for popular short-haul destinations around Asia. All this resulted in July having a near 90% load factor.
She added: “Looking ahead, we expect that the strong travel demand seen in July will continue through the rest of the summer peak in August.
“We continue to make good progress in our journey to rebuild the Cathay Group and connectivity at our home hub and, as a group comprising Cathay Pacific and HK Express, we are now close to 60% of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels.
“We are on track to achieve our target of 70% covering 80 destinations by the end of this year, and we are confident of reaching 100% by the end of 2024.”
- Singapore Airlines continued to see strong passenger traffic and load factors across all regions tab the start of the summer peak.
SIA and sister carrier Scoot carried a combined three million passengers in July, up 45% year-on-year, while capacity grew by 28%.