Morgan Stanley: Maintains "in line with market" rating for CATHAY PAC AIR (00293) with a target price of 8.1 Hong Kong dollars.

Morgan Stanley released a research report stating that they maintain a "in line with the market" rating for CATHAY PAC AIR (00293), with a target price of 8.1 Hong Kong dollars. The company's holiday demand is optimistic, and the outlook for cargo is favorable. The report mentions that in August of this year, Cathay announced that the mainland passenger load factor (PLF) was stable. Among them, revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) increased by 15.9% year-on-year, reaching 69.0% in August 2018; available seat kilometers (ASK) increased by 19.8% year-on-year, reaching 70.6% in August 2018. The passenger load factor was 85.2%, a decrease of 2.9 percentage points year-on-year, lower than the level in August 2018 by 1.9 percentage points. The passenger load factor in China was 81.1%, a decrease of 7.5 percentage points compared to 2018, but an improvement of 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. The bank stated that CATHAY PAC AIR's cargo has entered the peak season, with a favorable outlook for cargo. The August cargo load factor (CLF) was 57.1%, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points year-on-year, compared to a 3.8 percentage point decline in August 2019, and accounted for 77.6% of available freight ton kilometers (AFTK) in August 2019. The group management expects that cargo demand will enter the peak season by the end of September.