Cathay Pacific says Dec passengers up 2.9%

(Reuters) - Cathay Pacific Airways , Hong Kong’s flag carrier, said last week it carried nearly 3 percent more passengers in December than the same month in 2009 while air freight volumes grew 12 percent as the global economy continues to recover.

December cargo and mail volume rose to 161,302 tonnes, boosting annual growth to 18.1 percent in 2010 with 1.8 million tonnes of goods moved, Cathay said in a statement.

The airline carried 2.28 million passengers in December and 26.8 million for the whole of 2010, up 2.9 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.

But the passenger load factor fell 3.8 percentage points to 80.1 percent in December due to an increase in capacity.

“However, the quality of revenue in all classes of travel was higher, with an improvement in the revenue efficiency of the operation,” Tom Owen, general manager revenue management of Cathay, said in the statement.

Its cargo and mail load factor also eased 1.2 percentage points to 77.4 percent last month, while capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up 19 percent.

The airline has increased its stake in its strategic partner Air China to 18.43 percent from 18.31 percent, its spokeswoman Carolyn Leung told Reuters.

Cathay bought 3.25 million H-shares in Air China from the market on January 10 at an average price of HK$8.938 per share, or a total of HK$29 million ($3.73 million), according to a recent filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

A strong rebound in air travel and cargo has helped lift profit of global airlines, especially Asian carriers. Cathay forecast its 2010 net profit to be HK$12.5 billion, more than double the HK$4.7 billion it earned in 2009.