OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2012. Cathay Pacific Airways released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for June 2012 that show passenger numbers growing ahead of the increase in capacity, while another drop in cargo and mail tonnage was recorded, reported the press-centre of Cathay Pacific.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,413,766 passengers in June – an increase of 6.4% on the same month in 2011 – while the passenger load factor rose by 1.4 percentage points to 82.9%. Capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), rose by 3.5%. For the year to date, passenger numbers have risen by 8.6% compared to a capacity increase of 6.9%.

The two airlines carried 127,698 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, a drop of 5.4% compared to June 2011. The cargo and mail load factor was down by 1.3 percentage points to 65.7%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, decreased by 5.2%, while cargo and mail tonne kilometres flown dropped by 7.1%. For the year to date, tonnage has declined by 10.1% against a capacity drop of 4.3%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management James Tong said: “Our flights were busy in June in the build-up to the summer peak season. Passenger volumes rose above the increase in capacity, which shows that the demand is there, but we continued to see yield coming under pressure in all cabins last month. Demand remains particularly robust within the region and to North America, though we expect most routes to show high load factors over the summer peak.”

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing James Woodrow said: “There was no uptick in demand out of our key markets in June. The fall in cargo tonnage was not as sharp as in previous months in 2012, but that reflects the weakness of the cargo market at the same time last year. Traffic within the Asia Pacific region continued to hold up well while the transpacific routes were spurred by the shipment of cherries from the US. Given the continued weakness of the market, our priority remains to manage capacity in line with demand.”