Hong Kong– Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific(0293.HK) released its 2023 Annual Result on Wednesday, marking its first profitable year after three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cathay Group reported an annual profit of 9.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.25 billion), the highest recorded profit since 2010.
The profit includes a profit of HK$433 million from HK Express (an LCC acquired by the Cathay Group in 2019) and a non-cash gain of HK$1.9 billion from its dilution of interest in Air China. This arises from Cathay not participating in Air China’s additional share issuance in 2023.
Patrick Healy, the Chair of Cathay, said in the statement, “In 2023, we finally left the Covid-19 pandemic behind us.” And the CEO, Ronald Lam, said, “We are ready to unleash the potential and innovation of our next exciting phase of development – Cathay is back!”
Cathay Group pushed back its plan to restore flights to pre-pandemic level, from the end of 2024 to the first quarter in 2025 while it expects to reach 80% of flights within the second quarter of 2024.
The load factor of passenger flight service to North America increased by 15 percentage points to 91.9%, marking the highest load factor among the six markets served by Cathay. It was the 40th year Cathay service to North America since 1983. Cathay currently serves 7 destinations in North American including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. The Chicago route was reopened in October 2023.
Ordinary shareholders will receive their first dividend since 2019, HK$0.43 per ordinary share. Cathay already brought back half of the preference shares owned by the government, with plans to buy the remaining shares in July 2024. The preference shares was issued to Aviation 2020 Limited(a limited company wholly owned by the Financial Secretary Incorporated) in June 2020, it was first time Hong Kong government injection money into a private company.
featured photo by Cathay.