Cathay still cautious about recovery
HONG KONG -The Cathay Pacific Group is back in the black, announcing profit of HK$4,694 million in 2009.
This compares to a loss of HK$8,696 million the previous year
Cathay made an operating profit of HK$285 million from its core airline business compared with a loss of HK$1,440 million in 2008.
In a statement, the airline said, “While there was some pick-up in the airline’s passenger and cargo businesses towards the end of 2009, overall there was a deep downturn in key markets which in turn led to sharply reduced revenues.â€
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair between them carried 24.6 million passengers in 2009 – a fall of 1.6 percent on the previous year.
Capacity fell by 3.7 percent compared to 2008. This helped to push up the load factor, which at 80.5 percent rose by 1.7 percentage points compared to 2008.
Passenger revenue fell by 20.8 percent to HK$45,920 million, reflecting substantial reductions in premium traffic and in economy class yield, though economy class passenger numbers held up well.
The strong US dollar in the first half of the year also contributed to the 19.5 percent fall in passenger yield for the year.
Cathay Pacific chairman Christopher Pratt said, “While we welcomed the improvement in business in the latter part of 2009, we remain cautious about the prospects for 2010.
“Revenues and yields remain below levels experienced prior to the recent downturn and there has not yet been a sustained improvement in the premium passenger demand, which accounts for a significant part of our revenue.”
Ian Jarrett
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