International airline Cathay Pacific, which has recently re-introduced flights from South Africa to Asia, said that as it scaled up its operations, it was looking at introducing additional routes and an increase in frequencies.
Rakesh Raicar, the Regional General Manager South Asia, Middle East & Africa, in an interview this week attributed this to the pent-up demand of the past three years, which saw the airline register a healthy demand on most of their routes.
"We have reached 50% of our pre-Covid passenger travel capacity and will be at 70% by the end of the year. We will also reach 85% of our pre-Covid cargo capacity by the end of 2023," Raicar said.
Cathay told Business Report that with the resumption of its flights to Hong Kong, its customers from South Africa could now connect not only to Hong Kong, but also to Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and many more destinations via Hong Kong.
Additionally, as demand for corporate and leisure travel to South-east Asian regions gradually returned to pre-pandemic levels, the resumption of flights to Hong Kong further enhanced the ease of connection to the Greater Bay Area through their inter modal transport offering.
Raicar said the airline had witnessed a healthy pick-up for both inbound and outbound flights.
"The demand has been extremely encouraging, not only for the first flight but also our forward booking trends are showing positive signs. There is a significant upward trend in the demand for Asia, especially Mainland China."
Raicar said, "Africa has always been an important region for us. We have been flying from Johannesburg for over 25 years, and we hope to scale back to our pre-pandemic capacity by next year. Progressively we would be happy to connect different cities in South Africa to Asia, thereby connecting two extremely diverse cultures with each other, and opening opportunities for business and leisure through our travel and cargo business."
While the company had not operated in South Africa for the past three years, the top priority was looking after their passengers and customers.
He said "Their trust, loyalty and affinity were important to us. We navigated the challenges induced by the pandemic and, with the strength of our network, successfully restored confidence in the Cathay Pacific brand. However, this was a challenging endeavour as we were out of operations for 3.5 years.
“But with the support of our loyal customers, Cathay Pacific is back in the skies with an extremely healthy demand, signified by the success of our first two flights from Johannesburg. Furthermore, being Asia specialists, we take the lead in travel to Asian destinations, and we will continue to build on our strengths," Raicar said.
Cathay said customers from South Africa could enjoy a superior flight experience when travelling on the airline's state-of-the-art A350-900. This aircraft was configured in a three cabin-class layout with extra-wide cabins, including new seats, an innovative in-flight entertainment system and connectivity.
The Business Class comes equipped with fully flatbeds.
Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced this week that the post-Covid recovery momentum continued in June for passenger markets.
Total traffic in June 2023 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 31.0% compared to June last year. Globally, traffic is now at 94.2% of pre-Covid levels.
For the first half of this year, total traffic was up 47.2% compared to the year-ago period. Asia-Pacific airlines had a 128.1% increase in June this year traffic compared to June last year, easily the largest percentage gain among the regions. Capacity climbed 115.6% and the load factor increased by 4.6 percentage points to 82.9%.
BUSINESS REPORT