Asia’s air cargo operators continue to suffer as the Cathay Pacific Group has reported that tonnage carried by Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon fell 9.1 per cent in June compared to the same month in 2018.
The two airlines carried 163,977 tonnes of cargo and mail last month. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 7.8 percentage points to 62.8 per cent.
Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was up by 1.5 per cent while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) dropped by 9.7 per cent.
In the first six months of 2019, the tonnage fell by 5.7 per cent against a 1.1 per cent increase in capacity and a 6.1 per cent decrease in RFTKs.
Cathay Pacific director commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam said: “On the cargo side, weakening market sentiment has been impacting our tonnage uplift and yield.
“With the exception of the Americas, Northeast Asia and mainland China, which had a marginal increase in uplift compared to May, overall volume has seen decline against the previous month and year, with only a short-lived recovery from Asia towards the latter half of June. The outlook for the coming months has not seen signs of volume rebound.
“We shall further our efforts to maintain a healthy market share by working closely with our forwarders and shippers, and further rationalise our freighter capacity to better match demand.”
