(25 Jan 2021)
Cathay Pacific carried 39,989 passengers in December
2020, a decrease of 98.7% when compared to December 2019.

The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs)
fell 98.1% year-on-year. Passenger load factor dropped by 66.6
percentage points to 18.4%, while capacity, measured in available
seat kilometres (ASKs), decreased by 91.2%.

For 2020 as a whole, the number of passengers
carried by Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon dropped by 86.9%
against a 78.8% decrease in capacity and an 85.1% decrease in
RPKs, as compared to 2019.

Cathay Pacific Group Chief Customer and Commercial
Officer, Ronald Lam, said, “Our passenger business continues to face
significant challenges. We increased capacity by about 8% in
December compared to November as we gradually added capacity on
flights serving North America, the South Pacific and some regional
routes. Overall, average daily passenger numbers and load factor
in December both remained low at 1,290 and 18.4%, respectively.

“In the first half of December, we saw some good
demand for student travel from the UK to Hong Kong for the festive
holiday period. However, our passenger business was notably
impacted in the second half of the month when the Hong Kong SAR
Government implemented a ban on flights from the UK to Hong Kong
on 22 December amid the surge of COVID19 cases in the UK,
together with the change from 14 days’ to 21 days’ mandatory
quarantine in designated hotels for arrivals into Hong Kong. On 28
December we carried just 490 passengers in total – the lowest
number in a single day since 15 June. While some flights from Hong
Kong to the UK have resumed as of January, flights from the UK to
Hong Kong remain suspended.”

Cathay Pacific Cargo

The Hong Kong-based airline carried 120,218 tonnes of cargo and
mail last month, a decrease of 32.3% compared to December 2019.

The month’s revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) fell 23.7%
year-on-year. The cargo and mail load factor increased by 13.9
percentage points to 80.3%, while capacity, measured in available
freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was down by 36.9%.

For 2020 as a
whole, the tonnage carried by Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon
fell by 34.1% against a 35.5% drop in capacity and a 26.5%
decrease in RFTKs, as compared to 2019.

Mr. Lam said, “Cargo had a relatively good finish
to 2020, in line with the overall positive performance seen in the
second half of the year. December tonnage was up month-on-month by
about 3%, with exports from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong
holding up for longer than is normally expected at the end of the
year. The overall buoyancy of the market ensured that load factors
continued to grow, averaging 80.3% in December – the highest
monthly average in 2020. The imbalance in the market between
demand and available capacity created an ongoing need for
cargo-only passenger flights prior to Christmas, and overall in
December we operated 713 pairs of these flights – only slightly
fewer than in our peak month of November.

“Network traffic feed from Northeast Asia and the
Southwest Pacific was also encouraging with good movements of
priority cargo and special products. We launched a seasonal cargo
service into Hobart, Australia last month transporting
high-quality fresh produce from Tasmania’s capital city to various
parts of Asia. We also launched a new scheduled freighter service
between Hong Kong and Riyadh in January to meet the strong demand
for shipments of e-commerce and other general cargo such as
garments.”

Cathay Pacific Outlook – 2021

“Effective later within February 2021, the Hong
Kong SAR Government will implement a new 14-day hotel quarantine
plus 7-day medical surveillance requirement for both our Hong
Kong-based pilots and cabin crew. The new measure will have a
significant impact on our ability to service our passenger and
cargo markets. The actual extent of such impact is yet to be
confirmed and will be affected by a number of factors, including
the success of mitigation measures we are able to adopt, such as
agile manpower resources management. At this stage, our
preliminary assessment is that the new measure may result in a
reduction of current passenger capacity of around 60%, a reduction
of current cargo capacity of around 25% and a further increase in
our cash burn of approximately HK$300-$400 million per month, on
top of our current HK$1.0-1.5 billion levels.”

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