Cathay Pacific Airways carried 172,253 tonnes of cargo and mail in August, an increase of 12 per cent compared to the same month last year.

This figure represents the combined traffic of Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon for the month, and was driven by strong demand out of key markets.

The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.2 percentage points to 65.5 per cent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 7.5 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 11.3 per cent.

In the first eight months of 2017, tonnage rose by 11.9 per cent to 1.3 million tonnes against a 3.3 per cent increase in capacity and a 9.5 per cent increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific director for commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam says: “Our cargo business, meanwhile, continued its good momentum. Demand out of our key markets remained strong; tonnage growth was well ahead of capacity growth, with both inbound and outbound sectors sustaining high levels.

“Overall, our cargo yield sustained an improving trend. Looking ahead, we plan to operate our maximum freighter schedule in order to match the forecast surge in demand from various new product launches.”