Bangkok--11 Mar--DC Consultants and Marketing Communications
Cathay Pacific Airways announced a profit attributable to shareholders of HK$7,023 million in its 2007 annual results, compared to HK$4,088 million the previous year. The 2007 result, the first to include a full year’s contribution from wholly owned subsidiary Dragonair, is a record annual profit for the Cathay Pacific Group.
“Group turnover increased by 24.0% to a record HK$75,358 million in 2007”, said Cathay Pacific chairman Christopher Pratt.
“High fuel prices continued to have a significant impact on the airline, particularly in the second half of the year, and the fuel bill rose by 21.8% to HK$24,624 million. This was only partially offset by fuel surcharges. The unit cost excluding fuel fell slightly as a result of the airline’s efforts to increase productivity and reduce controllable overheads.”
Passenger demand was high throughout the year, and Cathay Pacific carried a record 17.8 million passengers in 2007 — an increase of 6.2% on the previous year. Strong demand from premium passengers pushed yield up 11.1% to HK?52.2, helping total passenger revenue to a new high of HK$39,299 million — an increase of 17.0% over 2006. Capacity, in terms of available seat kilometres, rose by 3.9% as new aircraft arrived and services on key routes were strengthened in the second half of the year.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair added 12 new aircraft to their fleet last year, including the first five of 30 Boeing 777-300ERs the airline has on firm order. The new aircraft, which will become the mainstay of Cathay Pacific’s long-haul fleet, were used to add a second daily non-stop flight to New York.
“New daily services were added to Melbourne and San Francisco, with flights also added to Adelaide, Frankfurt, Paris, Perth, Tokyo, Toronto and Vancouver. In addition, there were seven new destinations to the network in 2007 through code-share arrangements with Dragonair,” said Mr Pratt.
There was a further expansion to the freight fleet in 2007 and the increased capacity helped Cathay Pacific carry a record 1,353,000 tonnes of freight, despite a soft market throughout the year. Cargo revenue rose by 10.0% to HK$13,183 million, while the cargo load factor fell by 0.8% point to 67.5%. A combination of factors -- weak demand out of Europe and North Asia, increased competition and a modal shift to marine freight due to high fuel prices — led to a 7.7% decline in cargo yield to HK$1.56.
Work was ongoing throughout 2007 to realise the synergies resulting from Dragonair’s becoming part of the Cathay Pacific Group in September 2006. In the first full year since integration, the two airlines worked to enhance connectivity by strengthening and aligning both their networks. Dragonair saw a total of six new destinations — Busan, Fukuoka, Kathmandu, Phuket, Sendai and Taichung — while frequency to a number of secondary Mainland destinations were strengthened. Connection times at Hong Kong International Airport were also improved, giving a boost to Hong Kong’s position as a leading international aviation hub.
“Despite higher fuel prices, the 2007 results, the first to include full figures from sister airline Dragonair, is quite impressive,” said Mr Aaron Chan, Cathay Pacific Country Manager for Thailand.
“Since the group made Dragonair a wholly-owned subsidiary in September 2006, a great deal of work has been done to create synergies between the two carriers, particularly in the area of improving connection between their two networks and boosting Dragonair’s passenger services.
As part of the same deal Cathay Pacific enhanced its partnership with Air China and work is under way on a number of initiatives between the two carriers. The group remains committed to providing excellent product and service, as well as to expanding its business to become a gateway to China.”
To further highlight its commitment to building Hong Kong as an airfreight hub, Cathay Pacific recently submitted a bid to build and operate the third cargo terminal at Hong Kong International Airport.
On the product side, Cathay Pacific began rolling out its innovative new, three-class long-haul inflight product. This features First Class suites, full-flat beds with enhanced privacy in Business Class and unique Economy Class seats that recline within their own shell. All three cabins feature a brand new state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system with audio and video on demand. The new cabins have been retrofitted into 10 aircraft, while all new Boeing 777-300ERs and three new Airbus A330-300s arrived with the product in place. The entire long-haul fleet will feature the product by mid-2009.
For more information, please contact :
Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Marisa Vivattanaprasert Tel: 0-2263-0642 DC Consultants and Marketing Communications Ltd.Pimpakarn Chaisung / Naree Chok-A-Nantang / Chanida Apphathornkul / Rungnapa RungbunluesakTel: 0-2610-2383 Fax: 0-2610-2345