Cathay Pacific ends 2024 with record rises in passengers and freight traffic

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Group has announced its traffic figures for December 2024. The figures show impressive increases in both the number of passengers carried and tonnes of cargo transported in the final month of 2024, completing the carrier’s two-year rebuilding process after its fortunes were decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cathay Pacific carried a total of 2,248,950 passengers in December 2024, an increase of 26.4% compared with December 2023. The month’s revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) increased 27.9% year on year. Passenger load factor increased by 3.6 percentage points to 84.8%, while available seat kilometers (ASKs) increased by 22.5% year on year.

For the full year of 2024, the Cathay Group achieved new post-pandemic highs both for total passengers and cargo carried. Cathay Pacific and its low-cost arm HK Express carried a combined total of more than 28 million passengers in 2024, marking a year-on-year increase of 30.7%.

Benson Truong / Shutterstock“December is the traditional peak season for our travel business as customers visit friends and relatives, and travel for leisure over the Christmas and New Year holidays,” said Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau. “In 2024, we achieved a significant milestone during the year-end travel peak with Cathay Pacific and HK Express together carrying more than 100,000 passengers in a single day –  the most since the start of our rebuild on a total of eight days.”

“In addition, our premium cabins experienced high demand leading up to the holiday season, reflecting a surge in business-related travel before the end of the year. ​ December also saw the resumption of our seasonal service to Cairns, which operates three flights per week and has been well received by customers. Overall in 2024, we continued to leverage our global network and the strategic advantages of the Hong Kong hub to attract more transit passengers, in particular those traveling between the Chinese Mainland and cities around the world, “ Lau added.

Cargo

In terms of air freight, the airline carried 143,564 tonnes of cargo in December 2024, an increase of 11.7% compared with December 2023. The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometers (RFTKs) increased 6.5% year on year. The cargo load factor increased by 0.6 percentage points to 61.4%, while available cargo tonne kilometers (AFTKs) increased by 5.5% year on year. Meanwhile, Cathay Cargo carried a total of 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, which was 11% higher than the whole of 2023.

Terry K / Shutterstock“For cargo, the healthy market momentum seen in previous months continued into December, resulting in the highest tonnage of any month in 2024,” commented Lau.

“Demand for e-commerce shipments from Hong Kong and the rest of the Greater Bay Area remained robust during the year-end festive season. We also saw significant demand for perishables and seasonal produce from the Southwest Pacific and the Americas to Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. Meanwhile, we observed an increase in tonnage of our Cathay Expert solution arising from the movement of machinery and engines, particularly from North Asia.”

Looking ahead into 2025

“As a Group, we made incredible progress in 2024, having successfully completed our two-year rebuild journey and reaching 100% of our pre-pandemic flights from January 2025,” Lau confirmed. “Looking ahead, we remain firmly focused on further strengthening Hong Kong’s status as a leading international aviation hub, adding more flights and destinations for both passengers and cargo customers.”

Terry K / Shutterstock“Just recently, Cathay Pacific announced the launch of direct flights between Hong Kong and Rome starting June 2025. As a Group, we have already announced six new destinations so far for 2025 as we strive towards reaching 100 destinations worldwide this year. With the Lunar New Year approaching, we are seeing bookings accelerate as customers plan their holiday travel after the Christmas season. After the Lunar New Year peak, we expect leisure travel demand from Hong Kong to be quieter, with our flights carrying more transit passengers leveraging our strong global network.” ​

“In terms of cargo, we anticipate demand to be softer during the first half of January before picking up again towards the Lunar New Year holiday,” Lau concluded.

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