Cathay Pacific on Wednesday said the number of passengers it carried last month hit the one-million mark – the first time since the start of the pandemic three years ago.

Hong Kong’s flag carrier said it carried a total of 1,031,893 passengers in January, an increase of almost 4,078 percent from the same period last year.

It said the traffic figures "showed positive signs", with an increase in demand for flights to the mainland following the resumption of quarantine-free travel in early January.

It added that travel sentiment was high over the Lunar New Year period, with Japan, Bangkok and Singapore being the most popular destinations.

"We carried on average more than 33,000 passengers per day, up from about 26,000 per day in December 2022, and operated 18 percent more capacity than we did in December," Lavinia Lau, Cathay’s chief customer and commercial officer, said.

She added that the airline is working hard to further boost its flight capacity over the coming months.

"Demand for flights to and from the Chinese Mainland, both for point-to-point and connecting traffic via Hong Kong, is expected to grow and we are endeavouring to provide more options for our customers as quickly as feasible."

Meanwhile, the Tourism Board said around 500,000 visitors came to Hong Kong last month, triple the figure from the month before.

It said apart from those with essential travel needs such as overnight stopover, family visits or business trips, the city has also seen an increase in the number of leisure visitors.