Gelong Hui 11 May, Cathay Pacific Airways (00293.HK) announcementCathay Pacific carried 40800 passengers in April.The number of people increased by 82.2% over the same month in 2021 and decreased by 98.7% from the level of April 2019 before the outbreak. The number of kilometers earned by passengers increased by 60.7% year-on-year, but decreased by 98.5% compared with April 2019. The passenger carrying rate increased by 31.5 percentage points to 55.6%, and capacity based on the number of available seats per kilometer decreased by 30.2% year-on-year, down 97.7% from April 2019. In the first four months of 2022, the number of passengers increased by 37.8% over the same period last year, but capacity decreased by 60.1%, while the number of kilometers of income passengers increased by 15.8%.

Cathay Pacific carried 92000 tonnes of cargo in April, up 26.3 per cent from the same month last year but down 43.6 per cent from April 2019. The number of tons and kilometers of goods during the month fell by 13.2% year-on-year, a decrease of 62.4% compared with April 2019. The load rate fell 2.7 percentage points to 80.2%. Capacity in terms of available cargo tons per kilometer decreased by 10.2 per cent year-on-year, a decrease of 70.7 per cent compared with April 2019. In the first four months of 2022, cargo capacity fell by 5.4 per cent compared with the same period last year, transport capacity decreased by 42 per cent, while cargo income per ton kilometer fell by 43.3 per cent.

Lin Shiu-bo, President of customer and Business, said: "the performance of passenger transport business improved in April and passenger demand increased across the Cathay Pacific network. With the lifting of the ban on the arrival of passenger flights from nine countries on 1 April and the reduction of the quarantine period for arriving passengers from 14 days to seven days, the demand for people returning to Hong Kong from outside Hong Kong (especially the United Kingdom) has increased. In response to strong demand, the company increased the capacity of passenger flights by about 25% from March, while April's passenger capacity was only about 2% higher than before the outbreak.

"the company has added more flights to provide more and more convenient connecting flights for transit passengers. In addition to continued demand from mainland China, transit demand to and from other Asian cities has also rebounded. The company picked up 2805 passengers on April 29, the highest since August 4, 2021. On the other hand, in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in Shanghai, the company has further reduced the number of flights to mainland China.