In July, Airlines in North East Asia added greater than 10 million seats of additional capability, cementing Asia-Pacific because the world’s largest air travel region. After suffering greater than most from the COVID-19 lockdowns, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is rapidly returning to operational and financial health, reporting a return to profit in the primary half of 2023.
On Friday, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (Cathay) released an update on its first-half 2023 financial performance (1H2023), advising an expected consolidated profit of roughly HK$4.0-4.5 billion ($508-$571 million). It is a significant turnaround from the primary half of 2022 when the group lost HK$5 billion ($635 million). These are preliminary unaudited numbers, and Cathay will publish the finalized interim ends in August.
What’s behind the great results?
In June, Cathay Pacific carried 1.55 million passengers at a load factor of 88%, well ahead of the 150,000 it had in June 2022 at a 67% load factor. Nonetheless, echoing Lam’s view that there continues to be an extended technique to go in June 2019, the airline group carried 3.1 million at a load factor of 86.7%, around double the traffic from last month.
Photo: Cathay Pacific
The group passed a milestone on June twenty fifth when it carried greater than 60,000 passengers in a single day for the primary time for the reason that pandemic. In the primary half of this yr, Cathay carried 7.8 million passengers in comparison with 18.3 million in 1H2019, with greater than half of this yr’s traffic on routes between Hong Kong International Airport and the US and Europe.
Traffic to mainland China accounted for 4% of revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), while routes to the South West Pacific, North East Asia and South East Asia each accounted for around 13%. Cathay said that long-haul routes are proving popular for student traffic, corresponding to North America, the UK and Australasia, with load aspects on flights to Hong Kong averaging about 90%.
In response to , Cathay Pacific Airlines operates near 74% of its predominantly widebody fleet of 192 aircraft. The information shows 44 Airbus A350s, 30 A330s and 35 Boeing 777s in service, together with 11 A321neos. There are 20 Boeing freighters also operating, including six 747-400ERFs and 14 747-8Fs.
It is time to share the great times
With the airline now back in full swing and the outcomes looking sound, the airline also announced it was planning to purchase back the preference shares held by the Hong Kong SAR Government over the subsequent twelve months while bringing deferred dividend payments up so far, which included a payment of HK$1,524.1 million ($194 million) on June thirtieth.
Photo: Cathay Pacific Group
CEO Ronald Lam said the group had seen a trend of continuous improvement, and its financial position was healthy, showing that the airline is on the best track.
“We recorded losses totaling roughly HK$33.7 billion [$4.3 billion] over three years of the pandemic and the truth is that we’re only part way along our journey to rebuild Cathay.
“It has all the time been our culture to thank our people for the commitment and support they’ve shown. To this end, I’m pleased to announce a Special Appreciation Reward for many who have been with us through the pandemic of as much as six weeks of eligible pay, which will probably be paid within the September payroll.”
To be clear, Cathay said that each one employees who joined the group on or before 31 December 2022 will receive two weeks of eligible pay, and those that also participated in a Special Leave Scheme or equivalent during 2020 to 2022 and have been constantly employed since then will probably be eligible for an extra 4 weeks of eligible pay. The airline can be introducing a brand new profit-sharing scheme covering 2023-2025, with the main points to be shared with employees in August.
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