Cathay Pacific Airways Tuesday released traffic figures for April 2004 that show continued growthin the airline's passenger and cargo operations.

In April, the airline carried 1.09 million passengers, up from 1.03 million carried in March. First and Business Class sales weresupported by a rebounding world economy and leisure travel out of Hong Kong saw an up-tick during the back-to-back long weekend holidays over Easter and Ching Ming.

April's passenger load factor averaged 77 percent, up from 73.6percent in March, according to a press release for the company.

Cargo volumes eased slightly to 76,99 tons from a record 89,64 tons in March due to long holidays in China and Japan, when many businesses closed. April's cargo load factor was 69.8 percent, down from 73 percent in March.

Comparing the airline's current performance with that of last year is difficult because business in 2003 was so heavily affectedby SARS. However, cumulative figures for the first four months show that, on average, the airline carried more than one million passengers and more than 78,000 tons of cargo each month.

These figures are higher than those for the same four-month period in 2002, a very good year.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Revenue Management Sales & Distribution Lan Shiu said: "the holidays and strong First and Business class sales created another record April for passenger revenue. Yet the addition of more long-haul services, which on a per-kilometers basis tend to generate less money than short-haul ones, meant that revenue growth compared with April of 2002 did not quite keep pace with the increase in capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometers."

Cathay Pacific Director Sales & Marketing James Barrington said:"After a bumper March, cargo volumes eased a a little with the advent of the Labor Day in the Chinese mainland and Golden Week inJapan, long holidays in two major markets. Yet both areas are backto strength again. Cargo shipments ex-Hong Kong remained robust, and the inbound cargo load factor from North America increased during April as well."

Source: Xinhua