The Cathay Pacific Group has reported profits of HK$14,048 million (£1.1 billion) in 2010, nearly three times the HK$4,694 (£372 million) figure for 2009.
The airline group put its success down to sustained passenger demand, with consistently strong loads and a 29.3% year-on-year increase in passenger revenues, to $HK59,354 million (£4,705 million).
Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary Dragonair carried 26.8 million passengers in 2010, representing an increase of 9.1% on the 2009 figure.
Christopher Pratt, Cathay’s chairman, said business had seen a “welcome” rapid turnaround from the lows of 2008 and 2009.
However, he warned that Cathay could not afford to be complacent: “Demand is at present expected to remain strong in 2011, but this could be undermined if the current (or any higher) level of oil prices were to reduce global economic activity.”
Fuel is the single largest cost to the airlines, Pratt said, and increased oil prices will have a “significant adverse effect on profitability if they are not recovered through higher tariffs or fuel surcharges”.
There is a risk that the increases in charges, which would mean more expensive flights overall, could reduce passenger demand and therefore stunt growth, he added.
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