The Cathay Group today released its traffic figures for April 2025, showing excellent performance in the company’s travel segment.
According to Cathay’s chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau: “April was a good month for our travel business. The various holidays in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and elsewhere in Asia helped drive strong leisure travel demand, and over the Easter travel peak we were pleased to once again set a new post-pandemic record with Cathay Pacific and HK Express carrying more than 115,000 passengers combined on 18th April.”
Lau added that the Cathay Group is set to add more ports to its extensive passenger network, having launched flights to five new destinations in just April, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Urumqi for Cathay Pacific, and Nha Trang, Ishigaki and Komatsu for HK Express.
She said: “We remain focused on reaching 100 passenger destinations within the first half of the year, with more passenger destinations to be introduced in the coming weeks and months.”
With regard to the cargo side of the business, the latest announcements regarding the tariffs between China and the United States provide some reassurance to the market in the near term.
Lau, however, remarked: “We will continue to closely monitor the market conditions and leverage our built-in flexibility to adjust freighter capacity.”
Cathay Pacific performance in April
Cathay Pacific carried 36.3 percent more passengers in April 2025 compared with April 2024, while Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) increased by 27.1 percent.
In the first four months of 2025, the number of passengers carried increased by 26.6 percent compared with the same period for 2024.
Lau said: “Following a quieter month in March, leisure travel demand experienced a boost in April. The Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens and the festive period in Indonesia generated strong demand for return traffic early in the month, followed by a notable increase in travel demand over Easter. Then, towards the end of April, we observed robust pre-holiday demand from the Chinese Mainland and Japan, coinciding with the respective ‘Golden Week’ holidays in those two markets.”
Along with the airline’s well-received new services to Dallas-Fort Worth and Urumqi, Cathay’s network achieved a load factor of over 86.4 percent in April, the highest yet of any month this year.
HK Express sees significant growth in April
Meanwhile, the Group’s low-cost carrier HK Express carried more than 690,000 passengers in April, marking an increase of 47.4 percent year on year, while Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) grew by 42 percent.
In the first four months of 2025, the number of passengers carried increased by 37.6 percent compared with the same period for 2024.
According to Lau: “Buoyed by the long-weekend holidays in April, HK Express carried a record number of passengers and operated a record number of flight sectors while continuing to expand its network. Extra sectors to popular destinations like Bangkok, Seoul and Phu Quoc were added over the Ching Ming Festival and Easter amidst strong demand.”
Cargo performance in April
Cathay Cargo carried 13.6 percent more cargo in April 2025 than in April 2024.
Available Freight Tonne Kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 8.9 percent while load factor decreased by 1.1 percentage points year on year. In the first four months of 2025, the total tonnage increased by 12.4 percent compared with the same period for 2024.
Lau said: “Tonnage in April was 10.4 percent lower than in March, primarily due to the traditional first quarter-end peak in March and the various holiday periods in April. However, our specialist solutions maintained their growth momentum and we saw increased demand for our Cathay Priority solution on the Asia Pacific-United States trade lane ahead of the implementation of trade tariffs. Demand for our Cathay Expert solution continued to grow, supported by robust exports of semiconductor machinery from North Asia as well as ad hoc demand out of Europe to Hong Kong.”
For May, Cathay reports that it has already seen steady replacement cargo from other parts of its network, including Southeast Asia, during the first half of the month amidst reduced demand from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland.
