Cathay Pacific has released its traffic figures for December 2024. In the full year of 2024, the Cathay Group achieved new post-pandemic highs for total passengers and cargo carried. Cathay Pacific and HK Express carried a combined total of more than 28 million passengers, marking an increase of 30.7% 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.
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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 kilometres (RPKs) increased 27.9% year on year. Passenger load factor increased by 3.6 percentage points to 84.8%, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 22.5% year on year.
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 kilometres (RFTKs) increased 6.5% year on year. The cargo load factor increased by 0.6 percentage points to 61.4%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 5.5% year on year.
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “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. 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.