Cathay Pacific Airways carried 871,191 passengers in February, 5.6% fewer than in the same month in 2000. The fall was partly due to the fact the Chinese New Year boosted traffic in February 2000, whereas it occurred in January this year. The timing of Chinese New Year had the opposite effect on cargo, which recorded relatively strong year-on-year growth of 11.5% to 55,600 tonnes.

Taking January and February together, both passenger and cargo operations showed modest growth. The airline carried 2% more passengers and 2.4% more cargo in the two months compared to the same period last year. The passenger load factor however fell 3.2 percentage points to 70.5% as capacity increased by 7.8%.

General Manager Network Revenue Ian Shiu said: “Our passenger and cargo revenue remained relatively robust in January and February. Given the current world economic situation however, we are monitoring demand in our key markets closely.”
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