Cathay starts year ‘strong’ with new pax milestone

Cathay Pacific announced it carried 37% more passengers in January 2025 compared with January 2024. Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) increased by 30.9% while load factor increased by 3.6 percentage points year on year. Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “The Cathay Group has got off to a strong start in 2025. Over the Lunar New Year travel peak, on 25 January Cathay Pacific and HK Express combined carried over 110,000 passengers, marking a new post-pandemic record for the number of passengers carried on a single day. As a Group, we are continuing to enhance our passenger network for our customers and for Hong Kong as we strive to reach 100 passenger destinations worldwide this year. In January, Cathay Pacific announced the return of direct flights to Rome starting 5 June 2025, while HK Express launched its service to Sendai on 17 January. HK Express has also announced flights to Nha Trang and Ishigaki starting 3 April. So far, eight destinations are joining our Group passenger network in 2025, with more announcements still to come.” Lau added that “Following the Christmas and New Year holidays, Cathay Pacific witnessed a resurgence in business travel demand leading to a solid load factor in the premium cabins. January also marked the peak period for outbound student traffic as the school term resumed, boosting demand on long-haul routes. Towards the end of the month, passenger travel demand from our home market, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Mainland increased significantly during the Lunar New Year holiday, with short-haul destinations being the most popular. Looking ahead, we anticipate a quieter period for leisure travel demand until the end of March.” Cathay Cargo carried 13.7% more cargo in January 2025 compared with January 2024. Available Freight Tonne Kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 14.7% while load factor decreased by 2.5 percentage points year on year. Lau said: “Cargo got off to a slower start after the New Year holidays, but demand gradually picked up pace as we approached the traditional pre-Lunar New Year rush. Perishables and seasonal produce from the Southwest Pacific remained robust, and we also observed increased demand for our Cathay Secure solution attributed to increased valuable cargoes from Southeast Asia as well as South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Softer cargo demand is expected following the Lunar New Year period.” Cathay’s HK Express carried a record high of over 667,000 passengers in January 2025, an increase of 46.1% compared with January 2024, while Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) increased by 39.7%. Lau said: “In addition to carrying a record number of passengers and expanding its network in January, HK Express also increased flights on a number of its routes, with Tokyo (Narita) increased to six daily return flights and Hiroshima to four return flights per week. Extra sectors to Hualien, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Phu Quoc were also mounted over the Lunar New Year peak season.” Singapore Airlines sees robust demand The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group saw robust travel demand during the month, supported by the Lunar New Year holiday season. Group passenger traffic rose 8.6% in January 2025 from a year before, outpacing the capacity increase of 5.5%. Consequently, the Group posted a higher passenger load factor (PLF) of 87.8% (+ 2.5 percentage points), with SIA and Scoot’s monthly PLF coming in at 87.2% and 90.3% respectively. The combined passenger carriage was 9.1% higher at 3.5 million. Cargo loads rose by 2.6% year-on-year, tracking below the 9.5% expansion in cargo capacity. Inventory stocking was less pronounced ahead of the holiday period, leading to relatively subdued cargo demand, with the consequent factory closures during the period further reducing cargo movement. As a result, the cargo load factor was 3.4 percentage points lower at 51.1%. During the month, Scoot launched passenger services to Padang in Indonesia and Shantou in China. At the end of January 2025, the Group’s passenger network1 covered 131 destinations in 36 countries and territories. SIA served 80 destinations, while Scoot served 74 destinations. The cargo network1 comprised 135 destinations in 37 countries and territories. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]