Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon combined carried 161,743 tonnes of cargo and mail in May, an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The cargo and mail load factor rose by 4.1 percentage points to 66.3 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 eight per cent.

In the first five months of 2017, the tonnage rose by 11.3 per cent to 795,211 tonnes against a 1.8 per cent increase in capacity and an 8.4 per cent increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales & marketing, Mark Sutch says: “Our cargo business continued to show strong year-on-year growth in May. While the market slowed down during the local Labour Day and Japan’s ‘Golden Week’ holidays, it promptly rebounded on all routes, especially those serving Northeast and Southeast Asia.

“Yield and demand continued to improve, which reflects the overall strength of the air freight industry. To take advantage of market conditions, we have bolstered our freighter fleet by wet-leasing two Boeing 747-8 Freighters from Atlas Air Worldwide, which will supplement capacity on our existing network, including destinations in the United States and Europe.”