Cathay Pacific: Passenger business picks up in Mar-2013 after shaky start in 2013

Cathay Pacific, in the Apr-2013 edition of CX World Magazine, stated (Apr-2013) "after getting off to a shaky start in 2013, the passenger business of the CX Group began to firm up from Chinese New Year, and recent weeks have seen revenue edging ahead of target with healthy demand in all cabins". General manager Revenue Management James Tong says Mar-2013 was a relatively stronger month, helped by the Easter peak and a traffic surge for the Hong Kong Sevens, "though revenue was still behind expectations for the first quarter". He noted more extra sectors were operated over Easter compared to 2012 and more passengers carried. He also noted that the Japan revival continued, helped by a much weaker yen, and Korea, Southeast Asia and Taiwan were also popular destinations for the Easter/Ching Ming break. He added: "Also, our network expansion over the past 12 months has given us more leisure destinations to sell, which is helping to create new traffic flows over our entire network". On the long-hauls, London and North America have been "doing especially well and the latter is being helped by the resumption of flights that were cancelled as part of last year's package of cost-saving initiatives". Mr Tong however said while there are bright spots on the passenger side, the carrier is still taking a cautious view moving into the second quarter. Mr Tong explained, "There are negatives. The market outlook is still uncertain and competition is fierce, so yield remains under pressure, especially in the premium cabins. At the same time, the H7N9 outbreak in China and political issues in North Asia have begun to cast a cloud over the travel sentiment." [more - original PR]