Cathay Pacific Group’s two airlines Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried 187,644 tonnes of cargo and mail last month – an increase of 8.9 per cent compared to the same month last year.
In August, the cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.9 percentage points to 68.4 per cent. Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was increased by 2.8 per cent while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased by 7.4 per cent.
In the first eight months of 2018, tonnage rose by 7.1 per cent to 1.41 million tonnes, against a 3.3 per cent increase in capacity and a 6.6 per cent increase in RFTKs.
Cathay Pacific director commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam said: “Our cargo business also continued its good momentum in August. Tonnage grew ahead of capacity, which was driven by strong transshipment volumes across our network. We saw good growth among the pharmaceutical and perishable segments.
“However, the favourable currency trend that we have enjoyed so far this year is reversing rapidly. Besides, our performance in September is set to be negatively impacted by the significant typhoons that disrupted our operations in both Japan and Hong Kong, especially our cargo business which is in its seasonal peak. We are also closely monitoring external factors that have the potential to impact global trade.”
