Tonnage and the load factor climbed for Cathay Pacific Airways in February compared to the same month last year.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon combined carried 137,674 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 17.4 per cent compared to February 2016.

The cargo and mail load factor rose by 6.2 percentage points to 64.2 per cent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 1.2 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 12 per cent.

In the first two months of 2017, the tonnage rose by nine per cent against a 0.9 per cent increase in capacity and a 5.9 per cent increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales and marketing, Mark Sutch says: “As expected, the first half of February saw volumes significantly affected by the Chinese New Year holiday.

“However, trade in the region was quick to rebound from the middle of the month, which was soon followed by a pick-up in long-haul trade, leading to a full recovery by month-end.

“It was encouraging to see that inbound loads from North America and Europe throughout – albeit on a reduced operating capacity. Taking into account the changes in the Chinese New Year holiday period this year, we managed solid tonnage growth; a reflection of the overall strengthening of the global air cargo demand.

“We predict March to be a busy month with more project shipments in the pipeline and the launch of a number of new consumer products. On 1 February, we commented our metal-neutral capacity sharing partnership with Lufthansa Cargo between Hong Kong and Europe.”