Cathay Pacific had a successful holiday season, carrying over 100,000 passengers on eight days throughout the Group, including HK Express, as demand peaked at the end of the year. These days, which took place between the 15th and the 31st of December, were a welcome reprieve for a carrier that has had to navigate the post-COVID business in recent years.
By 2025, Cathay Pacific is on track to return to pre-pandemic capacity levels, with significant momentum. Indeed, the airline and HK Express plan to serve over 100 locations this year from their hub at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). But where exactly are Cathay Pacific’s most frequent flying destinations? Let’s look at each continent and see.
Facts and figures
To put Cathay Pacific’s top routes into context, first determine the overall magnitude of its operations for January 2025.
Cirium, an aviation analytics business, reports that the Hong Kong flag carrier and oneworld member has scheduled 9,692 flights this month, totaling 2,911,078 seats and 7,012,724,720 available seat miles.
In terms of flight operations, this marks a 27.1% annual increase from January 2024, when Cathay Pacific scheduled 7,627 flights, 2,305,591 seats, and 5,430,827,585 available seat miles.
The statistic also significantly exceeds those from January 2019 and 2020, the two iterations immediately preceding the epidemic, by more than 1,000 flights each.
As a result, January 2025 is expected to be a busy month for Cathay Pacific, despite the fact that this time of year is typically a slowdown in demand after the holiday season, with summer still a few months away.
Overall, the Hong Kong flag carrier plans to conduct nonstop scheduled flights to five of the six permanently inhabited continents this month, with South America being the only exception.
Asian Adventures
Given Cathay Pacific’s Asian origins, it is unsurprising that the majority of its operations take place on this continent.
Cathay Pacific has 7,319 intra-Asia flights scheduled for January 2025, which accounts for more than 75% of its total capacity. Asia also makes up 74% of its seats (2,158,956) and 36% of its ASMs (2,517,928, 860).
Overall, Cathay Pacific’s most popular Asian route (and indeed any route worldwide) by flight frequency this month connects its Hong Kong International Airport hub with Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) in Taipei.
In January 2025, the carrier has planned 380 flights on this route in each direction, with 128,648 seats (an average of 338.5 per trip) and 64,452,648 ASMs each way.
This equates to a daily frequency of 12 or 13 flights in each direction on this competitive Asian route, with Cathay Pacific’s significant competitiveness on the sector highlighting how fiercely contested it is.
On this extremely popular route, the Hong Kong flag carrier competes with China Airlines, EVA Air, Greater Bay Airlines, HK Express, Hong Kong Airlines, and Starlux Airlines.
Cathay Pacific has planned around 230 flights from Hong Kong to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) and Singapore Changi (SIN) this month.
Meanwhile, in neighboring China, the leading routes include Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Beijing Capital (PEK), which have 217 and 186 round-trips planned, respectively.
North America
Cathay Pacific has a significantly lesser presence in North America, with only 842 flights and 274,552 seats booked to and from the continent this month.
However, because these corridors are among the longest covered by the Hong Kong flag airline, it has scheduled nearly as many available seat miles to North America as it has on intra-Asian flights, with 2,034,371,044 reserved.
Cathay Pacific’s top non-stop North American route connects Hong Kong to John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City three times per day, with 93 flights scheduled in each way in January 2025.
Unlike its other Asian routes, Cathay Pacific enjoys a passenger monopoly between Hong Kong and JFK. Cathay Pacific Cargo is the route’s sole airfreight operator.
Cathay Pacific operates two or three flights each day from Hong Kong to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in California, with 80 return trips planned for January 2025.
United Airlines competes with Cathay Pacific on its popular twice-daily flights between Hong Kong and California’s San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
This month, Cathay Pacific plans to fly two other North American routes twice a day, with these lines serving destinations in neighboring Canada rather than the United States.
The airports in concern are Toronto Pearson (YVR) in Ontario and Vancouver International (YVR) in British Columbia, with the latter facing competition from Air Canada and Hong Kong Airlines.
European Exploits
Cathay Pacific’s footprint in Europe is slightly less than in North America, with 674 flights scheduled between the continent and its main hub at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) this month.
Collectively, these services will provide 204,412 seats and 1,213,819,284 available seat miles, with London Heathrow (LHR) serving the most passengers.
Cathay Pacific has planned 152 flights in each way this month between Hong Kong and the UK’s largest and busiest airport, where it also has its own beautifully outfitted lounge in Terminal 3.
These flights operate five to four times a day, with a total monthly capacity of 45,826 seats (an average of 301.5 each trip) and 274,726,870 ASMs each way.
Cathay Pacific’s next most frequently served European routes are far less frequent, with two destinations served only 31 times each in January 2025, or to one return trip per day.
The lengthier of the two routes connects Hong Kong International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), where Cathay Pacific meets direct competition from flag carrier Air France.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is approximately 5,970 miles (9,608 kilometers) from Hong Kong International, whereas Schiphol Airport (AMS) in Amsterdam is 5,773 miles (9,291 kilometers) away.
Cathay Pacific competes directly with Dutch flag carrier and SkyTeam member KLM on flights between Hong Kong and the Netherlands’ capital city, where it also conducts dedicated scheduled cargo flights.
Over in Oceania
Given its proximity to the region, at least in comparison to other major markets such as Europe and North America, it is not surprise that Cathay Pacific has a substantial presence in Australia and New Zealand.
Its most popular route connects Hong Kong to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) four times a day, with 124 flights in each direction in January 2025.
Qantas, an Australian flag carrier and oneworld member, competes directly with Cathay Pacific on the Hong Kong-Melbourne route.
This is a corridor that the Hong Kong flag carrier serves three times a day, with 93 flights, 30,370 seats (an average of 326.6 per aircraft), and 139,337,560 ASMs scheduled in each direction.
Elsewhere in Australia, Cathay Pacific serves two more routes on a daily basis, with Perth Airport (PER) in Western Australia receiving 48 round trips in January.
Meanwhile, 42 rotations will connect Brisbane Airport (BNE) with Cathay Pacific’s primary hub, Hong Kong International Airport. On both of these routes, Cathay Pacific has a monopoly on passenger flights.
Cathay Pacific’s most popular route to New Zealand is a nonstop flight from its Hong Kong hub to Auckland (AKL), with 29 flights scheduled in each way in January 2025.
While Air New Zealand provides direct competition on this route, Cathay Pacific maintains a monopoly on its other route to the country, which connects Hong Kong to Christchurch (CHC) 19 times this month.
One African route.
While Africa is a considerably smaller market for Cathay Pacific, the airline still has 34 nonstop flights, 9,520 seats (at an average of 280 per route), and 63,127,120 available seat miles booked for January 2025.
The only route it provides on this continent is from its main hub at Hong Kong International Airport to OR Tambo International (JNB) in Johannesburg, with 17 rotations scheduled this month.
Cathay Pacific holds a complete monopoly on passenger traffic in the aerial corridor between Hong Kong International Airport and Johannesburg OR Tambo, which may come as no surprise given the route’s relative obscurity.
AeroLOPA operates 280-seat Airbus A350-900s on the route, with 38 business class flatbeds, 28 premium economy recliners, and 214 economy class seats.