Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried 1.9 per cent less passengers in January this year compared to the same month in 2017.
Both airlines combined welcomed 2,911,355 passengers last month.
The total passenger load factor dropped 2.3 percentage points to 84.2 per cent, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 2.6 per cent.
Cathay Pacific director of commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam said: “Overall performance in January was distorted because of Chinese New Year starting later this year when compared to 2017.
“Demand for premium class travel continued to be robust during the month, while student return traffic on long-haul routes, especially those to the UK and Southwest Pacific, was strong early in the month. Indian routes were our star performers, with passenger volumes rising higher than capacity increases.”
