Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon traffic figures for July 2017 that show an increase in both the number of passengers carried and cargo and mail uplifted compared to the same month in 2016.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 3,117,149 passengers last month - an increase of 1.5% compared to July 2016. The passenger load factor dropped 0.2 percentage points to 86.8%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 4.4%. In the first seven months of 2017, the number of passenger carried declined by 0.2% while capacity rose by 1.6%.

The two airlines carried 179,691 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 13.7% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 4.0 percentage points to 68.7%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 4.5% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 11%. In the first seven months of 2017, the tonnage rose by 11.9% against a 2.6% increase in capacity and a 9.2% increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific Director Commercial and Cargo Ronald Lam said: "We saw high passenger volumes across the network throughout the early summer peak period in July, including a continued improvement in business traffic. We enjoyed the highest volume growth on our European routes, where we have added frequency to a number of popular travel hotspots, and of course launched our seasonal service to Barcelona, which has got off to a strong start. However, overall passenger yield continued to come under pressure, reflecting increasing market capacity on many of our key long-haul and regional routes.

"Meanwhile our cargo business continued to show strong momentum, which has been driven by increased demand in our key markets. Our strategic partnership with Atlas Air Worldwide has allowed us to increase freighter capacity to capture some of this demand. Tonnage growth was well ahead of capacity growth in July, with both inbound and outbound sectors to and from Hong Kong performing well. Overall cargo yield continued its positive improvement trend."