Cathay Pacific Carried 54,092 Passengers and 121,600 Tonnes of Cargo in July

Cathay Pacific carried 54,092 passengers in July 2021, an increase of 25.8% compared to July 2020, but a 98.4% decrease when compared to the pre-pandemic level in July 2019.

The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 22.6% year-on-year, down 97.6% versus July 2019.

Passenger load factor increased by 5.1 percentage points to 28.5%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 0.7%, but remained 92.9% down on July 2019 levels.

In the first seven months of 2021, the number of passengers carried by the Cathay Pacific dropped by 95.2% against an 81.9% decrease in capacity and a 94.3% decrease in RPKs, as compared to the same period for 2020.

“Our passenger capacity in July dropped slightly by 3% month-on-month. We operated only 7.1% of our July 2019 pre-pandemic passenger capacity. We did see some improvements in demand. We carried a total of 54,092 passengers in July, averaging 1,745 per day. On 29 July, we carried 2,585 passengers, the most in a single day so far in 2021. Meanwhile, our passenger load factor of 28.5% was the highest it’s been over the past 12 months,” said Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific's Chief Customer and Commercial Officer. “Transit traffic from the Chinese Mainland to the US and Canada remained robust. On top of that, we captured a few pockets of demand for flights from the Chinese Mainland to Southeast Asia, in particular to Jakarta and Hanoi. The increase in demand compensated for the loss of traffic from flights that remained suspended last month, notably from the UK, Philippines and Indonesia. Meanwhile, we resumed passenger services to Auckland, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Tel Aviv and Wuhan.”

The airline carried 121,600 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 19.1% compared to July 2020, but a 28.4% decrease compared with the same period in 2019.

The month’s revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) rose 17.8% year-on-year, but were down 20.8% compared to July 2019. The cargo and mail load factor increased by 5.4 percentage points to 81.8%, while capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was up by 10.1% year-on-year, but was down 38.9% versus July 2019.

In the first seven months of 2021, the tonnage decreased by 12.7% against a 26.7% drop in capacity and a 15.2% decrease in RFTKs, as compared to the same period for 2020.

“Cargo capacity in July increased 12.1% month-on-month, driven by the full resumption of our freighter schedule and a 33% increase in cargo-only passenger flights. All sales regions and route groups recorded healthy tonnage growth proportional to the increase in capacity, ensuring we sustained a high load factor of 81.8% across the month,” said Mr. Lam. “We saw more active movement of vaccines in July and we have now surpassed the milestone of 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines carried to locations around the world.”

So far this year, the airline has not recorded a single positive test among the more than 75,700 tests that its Hong Kong-based operating aircrew have taken in the days following their arrival in Hong Kong. In total, 88% of Cathay Pacific's Hong Kong-based employees, including 99% of its pilots and 91% of the cabin crew have already booked or received their COVID19 vaccinations.

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