HONG KONG – Cathay Pacific and Dragonair have released encouraging traffic figures for July 2008.
Combined Cathay and Dragonair figures show a near double digit growth in the number of passengers carried by the two airlines compared to the same month in 2007, along with a rise in cargo tonnage.
In July the two airlines carried a total of 2,308,738 passengers – an increase of 9.7 percent over the same month last year.
The month’s load factor was down 0.5 percentage points to 84.1 percent, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 16.3 percent on the previous year.
For the year to date, the passenger total is up 13.1 percent compared to a capacity rise of 14.6 percent.
Cathay Pacific general manager revenue management, Tom Owen, said, “Passenger traffic continued to grow in the traditional peak period of July, with a high total passenger load factor only marginally down on the previous year, despite significant capacity additions to Australia, North America and India.
“The outlook remains reasonable for the rest of the summer period,†Owen said.
Earlier this week CX announced that due to the impact of soaring fuel prices, it would redeploy some of its North American capacity from October, by adding services to the Middle East and Australia, and upgrading some services to Europe. costs.”
