Cathay Pacific Airways reported marginal full-year profit growth on Wednesday, but airfares fell because of intense competition as Asia\u2019s airlines continue to restore seat capacity after the pandemic.
\nHong Kong\u2019s flagship airline posted a 1% rise in group net profit to HK$9.89 billion ($1.27 billion) for the year ended December 31, beating SmartEstimate\u2019s HK$8.49 billion forecast, supported by stronger cargo demand, more passengers, lower fuel prices and cost efficiencies.
\nShares in the Hong Kong-listed carrier closed down 1.8% after jumping almost 4% to their highest since May 2019 after the results were announced.
\nCathay Pacific\u2019s full-service airline, however, saw its annual yield, a proxy for airfares, fall 12%, while yields at the group\u2019s fully owned low-cost carrier HK Express fell 23% year-on-year.
\nRegional air fares are back to normal, but long-haul ticket prices have room to fall further, CFO Rebecca Sharpe told a briefing.
\nCEO Ronald Lam said this trend was expected, and that the group had added around 30% more passenger capacity this year.
\nPassenger yields and ticket prices have been softening globally from COVID-19 era highs, as airlines bring planes back after pandemic travel restrictions were lifted. Hong Kong and mainland China emerged from those much later than other parts of the world and international capacity has still not been fully restored.
\nHK Express, which Cathay bought in 2019, reported a full-year loss of HK$400 million compared to a HK$433 million profit the year before.
\nCathay attributed the drops at HK Express to intense price competition on regional routes pushing airfares down, and industry-wide issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines that power its Airbus A320neo planes, which grounded some aircraft in 2024.
\nAviation consultancy OAG rated HK Express the fastest growing airline of 2024.
\n“A path to sustained profitability can be expected as (HK Express) continues to grow and increase its efficiencies,” Cathay said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cathay Pacific Airways reported marginal full-year profit growth on Wednesday, but airfares fell because of intense competition as Asia\u2019s airlines continue to restore seat capacity after the pandemic. Hong Kong\u2019s flagship airline posted a 1% rise in group net profit to HK$9.89 billion ($1.27 billion) for the year ended December 31, beating SmartEstimate\u2019s HK$8.49 billion …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":null,"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[96,98,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-companies","category-featured-en"],"yoast_head":"\n