The city's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific said on Thursday that it expects its air ticket fares to continue to "normalise" this year, as the group's passenger capacity returns to pre-pandemic levels from this month.

Attending an online briefing, Lavinia Lau, the group's chief customer and commercial officer, noted that while fares for short-haul flights have already largely returned to pre-Covid levels, ticket prices for long-haul flights remain high due to robust demand.

"That's because of the supply-demand imbalance primarily between China and the US. Some of the direct flights [between the two countries] have not resumed. That's why a lot of passengers still transited via Hong Kong to get on our US flights," she said.

"We do expect as we continue to add more and more flights, there'll likely be continued normalisation of yields," Lau said, adding that the group has hired over 7,000 new staff last year to cope with the rising demand.

Separately, Rebecca Sharpe, the group's chief financial officer, noted that the company has seen solid growth in its cargo business last year, thanks to a surge in e-commerce shipments from the mainland to long-haul destinations like the US and Europe.

But she warned that there could be a drop in demand going forward, and the company will closely monitor the tariff risks from the US going forward.

Nonetheless, she said the group is expecting strong financial results in the second half of this year, driven by its cargo business and fuel price declines.