On December 12, Cathay Pacific Airways released traffic figures for November 2006 that show a continued growth in both passenger and cargo traffic, the latter helped by the introduction of a new freighter service to Beijing.

Last month the airline carried a total of 1,374,726 passengers, up 7.1% on the same month in 2005. The passenger load factor was 78.7%, up 2.4 percentage points year on year, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), rose by 4.4%. Figures for the year to date show the number of passengers carried up 8.6% over last year, ahead of an 8.1% rise in ASKs.

The airline carried 109,413 tonnes of cargo in November, a 9.3% rise on the same month last year. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 7.8% in the same period. The month's cargo load factor was also up, by 1.8 percentage points, to 70.5%. The load factor for the year to date was 66.8%.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management, Sales & Distribution Ian Shiu said: "There is usually something of a passenger lull in November, but this year we were pleased by the high load factor and continued solid demand for travel. Business in the front-end continues to surpass expectations, and the situation overall is looking healthy as we move into the holiday peak."

Cathay Pacific Director & General Manager Cargo Ron Mathison said: "Demand out of Hong Kong and the Mainland held up well and our loads on key long-haul routes to Europe and the United States remained very high. The introduction of our new twice-weekly freighter service to Beijing is helping us tap into the growing market in Northern China, while five extra freighter flights a week to Shanghai from December 1 will give our Mainland business a further boost."