Cathay Pacific today released traffic figures for January 2006 that show a solid start to the year, boosted by a seasonal peak over the Chinese New Year holiday during which the airline operated 70 extra pairs of services to meet passenger demand.
The airline in January carried 1,388,805 passengers, a 15.1 percent increase over the same month last year. The shifting date of the Chinese New Year can make accurate year-on-year comparisons difficult – the holiday last year fell in February. Still, passenger growth for the period remained ahead of a corresponding 11.4 percent increase in passenger capacity, measured in terms of available seat kilometres, or ASKs.
Demand was strong to Australia and New Zealand, where it was the height of summer, and also to destinations within Southeast Asia – places that many leisure travellers avoided last year following the Indian Ocean tsunami. January’s passenger load factor was a high 80.4 percent, a rise of 0.8 percentage points.
The airline carried 91,366 tonnes of cargo in January, a 21.9 percent rise over the same month in 2005. A boost to shipments is normal during the run-up to the Chinese New Year. At the same time there was a 14.4 percent increase in capacity, measured in terms of available cargo/mail tonne kilometres. Two additional freighters have joined the fleet in the past year and new services commenced to Shanghai, Dallas and Atlanta.
The cargo load factor was 61.9 percent – a reflection of the fact that far more goods are being exported from southern China through Hong Kong than are being imported from the United States and Europe.
CAPA
The airline in January carried 1,388,805 passengers, a 15.1 percent increase over the same month last year. The shifting date of the Chinese New Year can make accurate year-on-year comparisons difficult – the holiday last year fell in February. Still, passenger growth for the period remained ahead of a corresponding 11.4 percent increase in passenger capacity, measured in terms of available seat kilometres, or ASKs.
Demand was strong to Australia and New Zealand, where it was the height of summer, and also to destinations within Southeast Asia – places that many leisure travellers avoided last year following the Indian Ocean tsunami. January’s passenger load factor was a high 80.4 percent, a rise of 0.8 percentage points.
The airline carried 91,366 tonnes of cargo in January, a 21.9 percent rise over the same month in 2005. A boost to shipments is normal during the run-up to the Chinese New Year. At the same time there was a 14.4 percent increase in capacity, measured in terms of available cargo/mail tonne kilometres. Two additional freighters have joined the fleet in the past year and new services commenced to Shanghai, Dallas and Atlanta.
The cargo load factor was 61.9 percent – a reflection of the fact that far more goods are being exported from southern China through Hong Kong than are being imported from the United States and Europe.
CAPA
