Cathay Pacific and its sister carrier Dragonair experienced an increase in traffic last year, boarding a combined total of 34.1 million passengers in 2015. The figure shows a 7.9 per cent year-on-year boost in traffic for the carriers, which operated a total of 78,634 flights. The number of flights increased 4.2 per cent while available seat capacity expanded 5.9 per cent and the average passenger load factor rose 2.4 per cent to 85.7 per cent.

Cathay experienced growing demand on routes to and from Europe, with a boost of 14.5 per cent in terms of revenue passenger kilometres, and Southeast Asia, with an increase of 13.4 per cent from last year. Traffic to mainland China also increased 6.9 per cent. Routes to and from South Asia and the Middle East experienced a decline of 1.9 per cent.

The carrier carried 2.9 million passengers in December 2015, an increase of 5.8 per cent year-on-year. Patricia Hwang, general manager, revenue, Cathay Pacific, said, “Traffic to holiday hotspots such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore was very high, though demand to Bangkok was still being affected by the bombing incident in 2015. We also saw strong demand on most of our long-haul routes, especially in the economy cabin. However, unfavourable currency movements continued to have a considerable impact on yield.”