Cathay Pacific Reports December 2021 Traffic

(25 Jan 2022)  Cathay Pacific carried 92,219 passengers in December 2021, an increase of 130.6% compared to December 2020, but a 96.9% decrease compared to the pre-pandemic level in December 2019.

Revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) in December rose 156.5% year-on-year, down 95.1% versus December 2019.

The passenger load factor increased by 18.2 percentage points to 36.6%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 28.6%, down 88.6% on December 2019 levels.

In the full year of 2021, the number of passengers carried dropped by 84.5% against a 61.8% decrease in capacity and a 79.5% decrease in RPKs, as compared to 2020.

Cathay Pacific A330 reg: B-LBK. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

Cathay Pacific Cargo

The airline carried 134,691 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 12% compared to December 2020, but a 24.1% decrease compared with the same period in 2019.

The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) rose 11.7% year-on-year, down 14.7% compared to December 2019.

The cargo load factor increased by 4 percentage points to 84.3%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was up by 6.5% year-on-year, a decrease of 32.9% versus December 2019.

In the full year of 2021, the tonnage increased by 0.1% against a 10.9% drop in capacity and a 1.1% decrease in RFTKs, as compared to 2020.

Speaking of January 2022, Cathay Pacific's CEO, Augustus Tang, said, “In late December and then early January, the Hong Kong SAR Government further tightened aircrew quarantine requirements and travel restrictions. These measures will have a significant impact on our passenger and cargo flight capacity. While we are fully committed to increasing our cargo capacity when conditions allow and to upholding Hong Kong’s international aviation hub status, for the month of January 2022, cargo has reduced to 20% of its pre-pandemic capacity and passenger flights have reduced to around 2% of their pre-pandemic capacity.”