HONG Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways yesterday said the combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for November showed a rise in the number of passengers and amount of cargo and mail carried against the same month last year.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried more than 2.18 million passengers in November, up 8.7 percent from a year ago, while the passenger load factor fell 1.5 percentage points to 80.5 percent, the company said.

For the year to date, the number of passengers carried is up 11 percent, and capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, rose 4.6 percent.

The two airlines carried 153,572 tons of cargo and mail last month, an annual increase of 8.4 percent.