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

Both Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 3,079,949 passengers last month – an increase of 3.5% compared to August 2016.

The passenger load factor dropped 0.5 percentage points to 86.3%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 4.8%. In the first eight months of 2017, the number of passenger carried increased by 0.3% while capacity rose by 2.0%.

The two airlines carried 172,253 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 12.0% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.2 percentage points to 65.5%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 7.5% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 11.3%. In the first eight months of 2017, the tonnage rose by 11.9% against a 3.3% increase in capacity and a 9.5% increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific director of commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam said: “We recorded modest revenue growth in August, despite our operations being disrupted by numerous typhoons in the region, including at our home hub in Hong Kong. The additional capacity we deployed on our European routes enabled strong volume growth during the summer peak, while premium class demand across the network in general remained robust. Headwinds in the form of yield decline persisted in several of our key markets, while geopolitical instability in Northeast Asia necessitated careful capacity management on our Korean routes.

Mr Lam went on to say“Our cargo business, meanwhile, continued its good momentum. Demand out of our key markets remained strong; tonnage growth was well ahead of capacity growth, with both inbound and outbound sectors sustaining high levels. Overall, our cargo yield sustained an improving trend. Looking ahead, we plan to operate our maximum freighter schedule in order to match the forecast surge in demand from various new product launches.”