The airline and its unit Cathay Dragon carried 2.99 million passengers in December, a drop of 3.6% from a year earlier.
The decline in November was more severe at 9%. Inbound traffic plunged 46% last month, the same as November, Cathay’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said in a statement.
“The sentiment for travel into Hong Kong was particularly weak on our regional routes such as mainland China, Taiwan and Japan,” Lam said. Outbound demand fell 4% on-year.
“2020 will continue to present us with a highly challenging operating environment,” Lam said.
“Advance bookings for Chinese New Year appear promising with the boost in transit passengers; however, we continue to see a significant shortfall for the period after Chinese New Year, especially from inbound traffic.”
The Chinese New Year is later this month.
Cathay had warned that its second-half profit would be “significantly” lower than the first as it was badly hit by months of protests.
In addition to suffering a slowdown in business, the airline faced a clampdown from Chinese regulators after some of its employees took part in demonstrations.
Cathay in November said it would cut this year’s capacity by 1.4%.