Cathay Pacific said its passenger numbers rose sharply in August, supported by the traditional peak summer season.

The SAR's flagship airline announced on Wednesday that it carried a total of almost 1.8 million passengers in August, up 603 percent from a year earlier.

However, the figure is still significantly lower than the three million passengers it carried in August 2019.

Looking ahead, Cathay's chief customer and commercial officer, Lavinia Lau, said the carrier is optimistic that business will continue to improve.

“While overall the outlook for the rest of 2023 looks promising, we continue to add more flights for our customers, in particular to and from the Chinese mainland where we are currently operating about 170 return flights per week to 16 airports in 15 cities,” she said.

Lau added that the airline is also seeing a pick-up in its cargo business, saying it carried almost 116,919 metric tons of cargo last month – up 11.5 percent from a year ago.

"We are seeing demand beginning to pick up well as businesses plan ahead for consumer sales events such as 'Singles' Day' in the Chinese Mainland and 'Black Friday' in long-haul markets," she said.