Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday it anticipated robust overall travel demand for the rest of the year, while acknowledging potential fluctuations on specific routes.

Delivering its interim report card, Cathay said net profit rose 1 percent to HK$3.65 billion.

Hong Kong's flagship carrier attributed the higher earnings to increased passenger numbers, lower fuel costs and steady cargo operations.

Its chief customer and commercial officer, Lavinia Lau, noted a significant 50 percent increase in summer flights to North America.

She added that the airline will explore other potential markets.

"Apart from Chinese mainland, we're also turning to Southeast Asia and for example India to get traffic, so as to keep filling up our flights," Lau said.

"Obviously, as we continue to add supply, supply-demand balance got a bit better, fares might go down. I think that is totally expected, but that won't deter us from adding more supply and more choice for our customers."

Meanwhile, Cathay announced plans to acquire 14 Boeing 777-9 aircraft, securing options for seven more.

The deal brought the order book of the twin-engine aircraft to 35.

"Boeing has certainly had a troubled period in the recent past, but we are very encouraged by the renewed focus that Boeing leadership has on engineering and production quality," chief operations and service delivery officer Alex McGowan said.

"We've seen that their test-flying programme has recommenced. They've got four test planes in operation now that have collectively flown 1,400 flights in over 4,000 hours.

"The fifth aircraft commenced its testing cycle, so they're really making great progress with the testing of that aircraft, and we've got confidence that we will have our first Boeing 777-9 in 2027."

Cathay's low-cost carrier, HK Express, posted a half-year loss of HK$524 million.

Cathay's chief executive officer Ronald Lam said the loss was attributed to temporary shifts in customer preferences away from key destinations like Japan – impacted by earthquake concerns earlier – and the typical maturation period required for newly launched routes.

But he said flights to Japan have been picking up again, and that he believes the new routes will become profitable once demand picks up.

"By launching these new routes, we also diversify our network away from just Japan," Lam said.

"Japan was like close to 50 percent of HK Express' frequency and network, but now its weighting is reducing as we launch more flights to places like Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Chinese mainland.

"In the long run, we believe we will have a more balanced network that will be able to diversify our risk across different destinations."