The number of passengers flying with Dragonair remained above half a million for a second consecutive month in August, boosted by summer holiday travel. A total of 517,856 passengers travelled with the airline in the month, up 15.6% year-on-year and just 0.3% lower than the monthly record set in July.

"The August passenger figures were very strong, mainly due to the high number of leisure travellers," said CEO Kenny Tang. "To meet market demand we operated 38 additional flights in the month.

"Our China Mainland and Taiwan services recorded double-digit increases in the number of customers flying. Both group and individual travel was strong on the Beijing and Shanghai routes, with the number of groups particularly high. Secondary cities, such as Changsha, Chengdu, Kunming and Xiamen, also recorded robust growth.

"Sanya also saw a tremendous rise in visitors compared with one year earlier," he noted, "as a result of some very attractive offers to this fast-developing leisure destination."

Meanwhile, cargo volumes increased 1.1% year-on-year and 8.4% month-on-month.

"Driving the increase were shipments to the China Mainland, where demand started to pick up following the mid-summer lull," said Mr. Tang. "Freighter maintenance continued to reduce our overall capacity in the month, but capacity should be back to normal in September."