Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd will add another non-stop flight from Malaysian northern state of Penang to Hong Kong from June next year, bringing its total non-stop service between the two cities to four per week, local media reported on Dec. 24.

This new non-stop flight will replace one existing flight via Kuala Lumpur, the New Straits Times said.

The new non-stop flight has been added in response to growing number of passengers from Penang to visit Hong Kong, said Katherine Lo, newly appointed Cathay Pacific country manager for Malaysia and Brunei.

Cathay Pacific currently operates daily flights from Penang to Hong Kong, with four via Kuala Lumpur and three direct.

The carrier operates the Hong Kong-Kuala Lumpur-Penang flights using a mixture of B777 and A330 equipment.

The carrier's system-wide passenger load factor, the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, has been in the 80 percent region and the load factor on its Malaysia-Hong Kong flights are largely reflective of this, Lo said.

"We expect our load factor between Malaysia and Hong Kong to continue at this level next year.

"We are optimistic that we can fill the extra capacity resulting from the additional direct flight between Penang and Hong Kong with passengers," the New Straits Times quoted Lo as saying.

The carrier is also expected to gain from the Beijing Olympics next year, but will not be offering any special travel packages in conjunction with the games as it is not the official airline partner, Lo said.

Cathay Pacific's passenger traffic growth from Malaysia remains unaffected by the operations of low-cost carriers (LCCs), particularly that of AirAsia which offers flights to Macau from Kuala Lumpur, Lo said.

"Our target market is different. We are a premium air travel provider, while they (AirAsia) pride themselves as an LCC," he added.

Routes between Malaysia and Hong Kong are profitable for the carrier, Lo said.