Cathay Pacific and Dragonair have seen cargo and mail rise to 146,745 tonnes in July, thanks to strong demand from Hong Kong. This is up from the slump it had from April to June, but still down on the yearly high of March.
The July figure was up from April, May and June when it was 137,444 tonnes, 138,448 tonnes and 140,144 tonnes, respectively. It is down on March when it was 155,352 tonnes but up on January and February when it was 130,955 tonnes and 101,295 tonnes, respectively. July was up on the same month in 2013 by 19.4 per cent. All the months from March were up at least 11 per cent on 2013, while January and February were down by 1.4 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively.
Cathay Pacific general manager cargo, sales and marketing, Mark Sutch says: “After a strong end to the second quarter, demand remained robust in July and the year-on-year tonnage increase was above expectations. Our performance was underpinned by a strong Hong Kong market and a significant surge in shipments out of the main manufacturing centres in mainland China.”
The load factor in July was 64.7 per cent, a slight drop from June when it was 64.9 per cent and down on the yearly high of March when it was 66.7 per cent. July’s load factor was up 4.4 per cent points year-on-year. It was up from January and February when it was 60.5 per cent and 59.3 per cent. Year-to-date load factor was 63.4 per cent, up 1.3 per cent points, compared to January to July 2013.
Sutch says North America has proved very strong, but Europe has been weaker. “We operated a full freighter schedule to all points in the Americas in July with good demand in both directions. We operated fewer freighters to Europe than originally planned though we are now making better use of the belly capacity in our Boeing 777-300 [extended range] passenger aircraft.” Cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTK) have risen since April when it was 798.3 million tonnes, to 864.7 million tonnes in July. It is down on March when it was 907.8 million tonnes. Cargo and mail RTK has been up in every month this year except in February when it was down 4.4 per cent.
