Swine flu takes toll on Cathay Pacific passenger numbers

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Cathay Pacific and its partner carrier Dragonair are reporting a sharp drop in passenger numbers for June, which they are partially blaming on the swine flu.

The two carriers saw passenger traffic fall by over 18 per cent in June, to 1.7 million, as compared with the same month in 2008, and their load factor dropped by 4.5 points, to 76.8 per cent.

In 2009 so far, the number of passengers carried by the two airlines has declined by 4.2 per cent and capacity has dropped by 2.1 per cent.

Tom Owen, the general manager for revenue management at Cathay Pacific, said: “We usually see a pickup in demand in June as summer approaches, but this year demand was depressed by the ongoing global economic recession and the reluctance of passengers to fly as a result of the widely reported H1N1 outbreak.”

He went on to say: “The H1N1 situation had a particularly severe impact in our largest market, Hong Kong, and within the region, especially on Japanese routes.”

According to the airline executive, demand for premium-class travel remained stable, but the fare wars in the economy segment meant that there were few opportunities for the carrier to improve yield.

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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