Cathay Pacific and its sister airline Dragonair saw a significant boost in cargo, largely due to an increase in shipments from China.
The two airlines carried 146,745 tonnes of cargo and mail in July, an increase of 19.4 percent compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 4.4 percentage points to 64.7 percent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 12.7 percent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown were up by 20.9 percent. For the year to the end of July, tonnage rose by 10.1 percent while capacity was up by 11.1 percent and RTKs increased by 13.4 percent.
“After a strong end to the second quarter, demand remained robust in July and the year-on-year tonnage increase was above expectations,” said Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager, cargo sales and marketing. Our performance was underpinned by a strong Hong Kong market and a significant surge in shipments out of the main manufacturing centers in Mainland China. We operated a full freighter schedule to all points in the Americas in July with good demand in both directions. We operated fewer freighters to Europe than originally planned though we are now making better use of the belly space in our Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft.”