Cathay Pacific says profit edged up in 2024 – ET TravelWorld

Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday that its attributable profit rose slightly in 2024 to USD 1.27 billion, after announcing earlier this year that its flights were finally back to pre-pandemic levels.

The city’s aviation sector was hit hard by Covid-era policies, which imposed strict rules on travellers that kept it internationally isolated before they were lifted in late 2022.

Chair Patrick Healy said last year marked Cathay’s “second consecutive year of solid financial performance”, following an attributable profit of USD 1.26 billion in 2023 — reversing the trend of annual losses since 2019.

“Our solid second-half financial result was driven by elevated cargo demand, higher passenger volumes, lower fuel prices and higher cost efficiencies compared with the previous year,” Healy said in an earnings release.

“This was partly offset by a continued normalisation of passenger yields as the supply of flights increased to meet demand in the overall market as expected.”

Cathay and its budget airline subsidiary HK Express together saw a 30 per cent spike in passengers year-on-year.

However, passenger yields — a measure of value generated by passengers — fell by 12 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, “reflecting the intense competition on regional routes”.

CEO Ronald Lam said headwinds in 2025 and beyond included “trade conflicts” that could impact Cathay Cargo and “supply chain challenges” that continue to affect the whole aviation industry.

Cathay said group revenue rose 10.5 per cent on-year to USD 13.4 billion, benefiting in part from a one-off gain of USD 74 million from diluting its interest in Air China. Cargo tonnage jumped 11 per cent and revenue grew by eight per cent to USD3.1 billion.

HK Express reported a loss of USD 51 million last year, which the company partly attributed to some of its Airbus A320neo aircraft being grounded by industry-wide engine issues. The company also announced a second interim dividend of 49 Hong Kong cents a share.

Cathay’s shares in Hong Kong ended the day down 1.8 per cent.

CEO Lam said on Wednesday that the company was “very confident to reach more than 100 passenger destinations globally” this year, counting both Cathay and HK Express.

“Be it in terms of quantity or quality, our rebuild efforts have been completed with stellar results,” he said at a press conference.

After a years-long manpower crunch, Cathay said Wednesday it plans to boost staff numbers by up to 4,000, to a total of around 34,000 by the year’s end.

But the number of Cathay pilots in 2024 remained below pre-pandemic levels.

Cathay last year unveiled plans for investments of more than USD12.9 billion, which coincided with the completion of Hong Kong’s airport expansion from two runways to three. The bulk of that investment went into new planes and Cathay said it had “already started taking delivery of over 100 new-generation aircraft”.

The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, which says it represents Cathay pilots, last year cast doubt on the airline’s claims that it had fully shaken off the Covid era’s lingering effects. In its 2019 annual report, Cathay and its then-subsidiary, the now-defunct Cathay Dragon, reported a combined available seat kilometres (ASK) of 163 billion.

That figure — which represents an airline’s passenger carrying capacity — was 126 billion in 2024. As for revenue passenger kilometres — a metric for passenger traffic — Cathay and HK Express said it hit 104 billion last year, while the figure stood at 134 billion in 2019.