Figures from two travel data firms have revealed that Hong Kong’s Cathay Group only reached about 85 per cent of its pre-pandemic flight numbers in January, despite the company’s assertion of a return to form that same month.
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An analyst also argued that both the company and Hong Kong’s airport still had a long way to go before either could achieve a full recovery, even with the robust traffic recorded in December of last year.
Independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie cited figures from travel data provider OAG showing that the number of scheduled passenger flights by the group last month stood at 13,312, or 85 per cent of the 15,617 recorded in January 2019.
The figures included scheduled flights by Cathay’s budget carrier, HK Express, which rose from 1,895 in January 2019 to 3,620 last month.
Sobie said the recovery rate for that period was similar to the airport’s, which oversaw 26,899 flights in January of this year compared with 31,160 during the same month in 2019.
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The Cathay Group, which also operates Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways, earlier announced that both of its airlines handled 28 million passengers last year, an increase of 30.7 per cent year on year.