Cathay Pacific announces record US$604.4 million profit for 2009

HONG KONG's Cathay Pacific Group announced a record profit of HK$4.69 billion (US$604.4 million) in 2009, compared to a loss of HK$8.69 billion the previous year.

Group revenue fell by 22.6 per cent to HK$66.97 billion in 2009.

The price of aviation fuel in the first half of the year was significantly lower than mid-2008, though it rose in the middle of 2009. This rise was reflected in mark-to-market gains of HK$2.01 billion on fuel hedging contracts for the period 2010-2011.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair between them carried 24.6 million passengers in 2009 - a fall of 1.6 per cent on the previous year. Passenger revenue fell by HK$45,920 million, reflecting substantial reductions in premium traffic and in economy class passenger numbers held up well. At the same time capacity fell by 3.7 per cent.

As a result of poor first-half performance, passenger yield fell 19.5 per cent.

The group's cargo business in the first half was worse than expected, but there was a slight increase in October.

Cargo revenue for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair combined fell by HK$17.25 billion in 2009, while total tonnage carried fell by 7.1 per cent to 1,527,948 tonnes. Capacity fell by 13.1 per cent reflected by a load factor of 70.8 per cent. Cargo yield for the year fell 26.8 per cent.

(Source: www.schednet.com)