While pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have led to a drop in sales among retailers in the Chinese territory, the airline emphasised that they have not dented demand for seats on flights from Australia to its home city.

Cathay's general manager for the south-west Pacific, Nelson Chin, said a weaker Australian dollar would help increase the number of foreign visitors because it made Australia a cheaper destination.

Hong Kong's flag carrier also generates a far greater percentage of its revenue from cargo than most other airlines, and Mr Chin said a fall in the dollar was likely to boost demand for freight services because it would make Australian exports more competitive abroad.

Cathay will boost capacity between Australia and Hong Kong by 7 per cent, or almost 1300 seats a week, by February as it uses larger aircraft such as Boeing 777-300s and installs more seats on its A330-300s.

Mr Chin said outbound traffic from Australia to Hong Kong had been stronger this year.

"The local sales were a bit softer a few years ago but this year has been a very good year for us. It is not just Sydney – it is across the board. It has also been helped by the change of schedule," he said.

Under a new schedule, Cathay effectively increased the number of flights each week between Australia and Hong Kong from 70 to 74 early this year by offering direct services to Adelaide and Cairns.

The latest government traffic figures show Cathay filled about 86 per cent of seats on flights between Hong Kong and Australia in July, compared with 82 per cent in the same month a year earlier. However, the data does not give an insight into the yields – or return on fares – on those flights.

Cathay is operating a maximum of 70 flights a week to Australia's four major airports, including Sydney and Melbourne, allowed under a bilateral air-rights agreement.

However, it is able to get around this roadblock because there is not a cap on flights to Cairns and Adelaide under the existing agreement between Australia and Hong Kong.

"We are finding ways to increase our capacity in spite of whatever constraint we have," Mr Chin said.

Cathay has been eager for an increase in the limit on the number of flights it can operate to Australia's four major cities. However, there is no sign that authorities will agree to an increase in the cap any time soon.

Despite a slowdown in the pace of economic growth in China, Mr Chin said the airline remains confident about long-term prospects for demand from Chinese travellers on routes to Australia.

"I don't see any slowdown. We are quite optimistic with the Chinese economy – the growing middle class allows more people to travel and Cathay is a well-known brand for the Chinese," he said.

However, Mr Chin conceded Chinese consumers had tightened their spending habits over the last six months.

Airlines such as China Southern and China Eastern have moderated their growth on routes to Australia. Singapore Airlines has also replaced some of its A380 services with smaller aircraft.

Cathay is one of a number of airlines that fly to Australia to have ordered Airbus' new A350, a rival aircraft to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. The airline will take delivery of its first new Airbus A350 aircraft in 2016 but has yet to reveal which long-haul routes it will fly them on.