Airlines

Cathay Pacific cargo tonnage falls 9.9% in February

Cathay Pacific Group has reported that Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon combined saw a steep decline in cargo and mail carried last month and the Chinese New Year holiday resulted in distortion of figures.

Last month, the Hong Kong carrier moved 131,320 tonnes of cargo and mail, a decrease of 9.9 per cent compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 5.0 percentage points to 60.7 per cent.

Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), decreased by 1.8 per cent while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) dropped by 9.3 per cent.

In the first two months of 2019, the tonnage fell by 6.4 per cent against a 0.4 per cent dip in capacity and a 7.1 per cent decrease in RFTKs.

Cathay Pacific director commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam said: “It is important to highlight that the early Chinese New Year holiday resulted in distortion in both passenger and cargo revenue growth for January and February.”

He added cargo saw slower demand pick-up after the holiday when compared with last year, especially out of mainland China and Hong Kong. “We did however see good growth from Southeast Asia markets. We reduced some freighter capacity in February to match demand better,” he noted.

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