Cathay Pacific has carried 28.9 million passengers during 2025, increasing 26.5% compared to the previous year.
Capacity for the year was up 25.8% and revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) were up 28.9%. Load factor averaged at 85.2%, up two percentage points compared to 2024.
In December 2025, the airline carried 2.7 million passengers, increasing 21.8% compared to the same month a year prior. Passenger load factor for the month was up 0.6 percentage points to 85.4%.
“In early December, we saw robust inbound traffic to Hong Kong among those visiting friends and relatives as well as students returning from North America, Oceania and the United Kingdom," said Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau. "This was followed by increased inbound traffic to Hong Kong from Northeast Asia, Thailand and India over the year-end holiday period.”
Capacity for December was up 23.3% and RPKs were up 24.1%.
“In terms of outbound traffic, we saw a surge in leisure travel demand during the holiday peak, notably to Northeast and Southeast Asia," said Lau. "The Chinese Mainland also emerged as a key destination, with travellers from Hong Kong exploring a wide variety of cities across our network.”
Lau added that Cathay Pacific's advance bookings for the Lunar New Year are “accelerating”.
“Beyond February, we will focus on capturing demand from major events in Hong Kong and around the region until the next leisure peak at Easter,” said Lau.
Cathay Cargo carried 6% more cargo in December 2025 than in December 2024, while available freight tonne kilometres (AFTK) increased by 8%. In the full year, total tonnage increased 9%.
The company expects softer demand in the first half of January, but will “gradually pick up” ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.
Cathay Pacific's low-cost subsidiary HK Express carried 7.9 million passengers in 2025, up 29.7%. This was supported by a 31.9% increase in capacity, though load factor was down 3.9 percentage points to 79.6%.
For December, HK Express carried 781,542 passengers, up 24.1%. Capacity was up 18.6% and load factor was up 4.1 percentage points to 86.2%.