Cathay Pacific has released its traffic figures for October 2023, as Cathay Pacific and HK Express combined surpassed the milestone of operating more than 9,000 passenger flight sectors in a month for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The airline carried 124,469 tonnes of cargo in October 2023, an increase of 13.7% compared with October 2022. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 10.6% year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 8.3 percentage points to 60.7%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 25.7% year on year.
In the first 10 months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 19.4% against a 69.9% increase in AFTKs and a 47.6% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2022.
Lavinia Lau, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer said, “Our travel business continued to see good demand in October, though the overall passenger mix was different from previous months.
“Air cargo demand continued to strengthen across the network in October, in particular from Hong Kong onto the transpacific trade lanes, as we entered the year-end peak period. Our tonnage grew about 4% month on month and around 14% year on year, with e-commerce continuing to be a key driver ahead of year-end sales events such as ‘Singles’ Day’ and ‘Black Friday’.
“We anticipate growing demand for fresh produce from our key markets of the Southwest Pacific, the Americas and Japan into Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland as we enter the main perishables season, while demand for e-commerce shipments is expected to remain strong through to the year end.
