CX, Dragonair see slowing air traffic
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Hong Kong’s slowing economy and post-Olympics lag have hit passengers numbers at Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. September figures showed further softening of its passenger business.
Last month CX and Dragonair carried a total of 1,878,080 passengers – a decline of 0.7% on the same month in 2007. This compares to a 14.2% growth in capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), over the same period. The month’s load factor was down 6.7 percentage points to 72.3%.
“Demand out of our biggest market, Hong Kong, slowed significantly, particularly on the corporate sales side, while typhoons in Hong Kong and Taiwan and the post-Olympics lag also impacted revenues,” said Cathay’s General Manager – Revenue Management, Tom Owen.
“Looking forward, we continue to see a softening in advance bookings, particularly for the premium cabins and in those sales territories more exposed to the financial services sector.”
Cathay Pacific General Manager – Cargo Sales & Marketing, Titus Diu, added; “The expected post-Olympics surge from mainland China didn’t materialise and there was also no significant rush before either the Mid-Autumn Festival or National Day holidays.”
Diu said uplift was also affected by Typhoon Hagupit and other tropical storms during the month. Currently, the only market showing consistent weakness is Northeast Asia, though the situation could change in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis.
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