Combined Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair traffic figures for January 2010 showed a small increase in passenger volumes compared to the same month last year alongside a significant rise in cargo and mail tonnage.

Both carriers carried a total of 2.1 million passengers, up 0.4% on January 2009. The month’s passenger load factor was 83.8%, an increase of 4.3 percentage points, while capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), was down by 3.6%.

The two airlines carried a total of 132,586 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, up 31.1% on January last year. The cargo and mail load factor climbed 15.8 percentage points to 74.9% while capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, was 0.9% down.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Tom Owen said: “Our passenger numbers showed a marginal increase despite a reduction in capacity and the fact that Chinese New Year fell in January last year."

"The improved load factor reflects the continuing pick-up in traffic from the lows of the financial crisis, spurred by high volumes of returning traffic from the busy Christmas period. We were also encouraged to see premium passenger numbers continue to grow, though we still have a long way to go to get back to the yield levels we enjoyed before the economic downturn.”

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales and Marketing Titus Diu said: “After a very strong end to 2009 we were pleased to see robust demand continue into the new year."

"Direct comparisons with 2009 are distorted by the fact that our traffic volumes were being severely affected by the economic slump early last year. However, the fact that we had roughly the same capacity as the previous January but an almost 16-point increase in load factor shows the extent to which traffic has bounced back.