Cathay Pacific Group today released combined Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon traffic figures for February 2018 that show an increase in both the number of passengers carried and cargo and mail uplifted compared to the same month in 2017.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 2,804,793 passengers last month - an increase of 4.6% compared to February 2017. The passenger load factor increased 0.7 percentage points to 84.1%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 4.9%. In the first two months of 2018, the number of passenger carried grew by 1.2% while capacity increased by 3.7%.

The two airline s carried 145,800 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 5.9% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 1.5 percentage points to 65.7%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 5.8% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 8.3%. In the first two months of 2018, the tonnage rose by 10.3% against a 5.1% increase in capacity and a 9.5% increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: "Whilst competition remains fierce, overall we are tracking along our expected revenue performance on both the passenger and cargo sides so far in 2018. Due to the timing shift in the Chinese New Year holiday, it is more meaningful to compare our combined January and February performance between 2018 and 2017.

"Compared to 2017, passenger volume growth fell slightly behind capacity growth in the first two months of 2018. However, gross passenger yield saw positive growth in the same period, partly driven by favourable exchange rates. Demand during and after the Chinese New Year holiday was very strong, especially on short-haul flights.
"Our cargo performance continued to be strong with both tonnage and yield achieving positive growth over last year. The positive growth in gross cargo yield was also partly contributed by favourable exchange rates."