Air Transport

Cathay Pacific Airways reported a 2% fall in passenger traffic in October, with traffic from north-east Asia sharply down.

Total RPKs fell by 2% from a year ago and the number of passengers fell by 3.9% to two million, says the Oneworld carrier. The figures include those of subsidiary Dragonair.

Traffic from north-east Asia saw a severe drop, with RPKs falling 10.7%.

Capacity, as measured by ASKs, fell by 10.1% from a year ago. The passenger load factor rose by 6.8 percentage points to 82.3%.

"Though our overall passenger numbers saw a year-on-year drop in October, the fall was below the reduction in capacity over the same period - hence the sharp rise in the month's load factor," says Cathay Pacific general manager revenue management Tom Owen.

He adds that a seasonal upturn in passenger traffic in September has continued into October. "But volumes and yields were still below October 2008, when the financial crisis had already begun to have an impact."

On the freight front, cargo and mail tonne kilometers fell by 1.9%, says the airline.

Nonetheless, October was still the best month of the year so far for the cargo business, says the carrier's general manager for cargo sales and marketing Titus Diu.

Strong demand from Hong Kong and Shanghai has resulted in high load factors, he adds.

"We expect demand to remain strong through to mid-December, though it is still too early to say whether we are seeing a sustained recovery," says Diu.