CATHAY SEES DROPS IN NUMBER OF PASENGERS CARRIED IN NOVEMBER

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- Cathay Pacific Airways Friday released
the combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for November that
showed a slide in passenger numbers and a steep drop in cargo and mail tonnage
compared to the same month last year.

In November, the two airlines carried a total of 1.978 million passengers,
a decline of 2.2 percent for the same month in 2007, while the load factor
dipped by 4.7 percentage points to 75.7 percent, said Cathay Pacific in a
statement.

Capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), was
up 7.4 percent over the same month last year, it said.

For the year to date, the number of passengers carried rose by 8.1
percent compared to a capacity rise of 13.5 percent, it said.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 131,758 tonnes of cargo and
mail in November, down 15.4 percent on the same month last year, while capacity,
measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, fell by 3.8 percent, it
highlighted.

The cargo and mail load factor dropped by 5.3 percentage points to 64.5
percent, the airline said.

For the year to date, cargo and mail tonnage climbed by 0.6 percent
compared to a capacity rise of 2.2 percent, it added.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Tom Owen said: "We saw
further weakening in many of our key passenger markets in November, with Hong
Kong suffering a particularly sharp drop in demand, especially on the corporate
side."

He added that passenger numbers in the back end of the aircraft also
weakened across the network, but nowhere near the dramatic decline in premium
traffic.

"This decline intensified on long-haul as well as regional routes, as
companies curtailed travel or traded down," he said.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing Titus Diu said:
"November is traditionally one of the busiest months in the airfreight business
but this year the peak simply didn't happen."

-- BERNAMA