Cathay Pacific Airways has posted an increase in the amount of cargo and mail uplifted in October compared to the same month last year.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair combined carried 172,385 tonnes of cargo and mail in October, a year-on-year (YOY) rise of 5.3 per cent on October 2015.

The cargo and mail load factor rose by 1.6 percentage points to 68.1 per cent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, increased YOY by 0.6 per cent, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased YOY by 3.2 per cent.

In the first ten months of 2016, the tonnage carried rose YOY by 2.2 per cent against a 0.5 per cent increase in capacity and there was an increase of 0.4 per cent in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales & marketing, Mark Sutch says: “Overall cargo demand in October was fairly strong and tonnage continued to grow. We had some negative impact on our forecasts during the month from typhoon disruptions and unscheduled aircraft maintenance but overall exports from Europe, Asia and Mainland China were robust.

“The team continues to work hard to push up the yield, and the rates are getting back to peak season levels. The new twice-weekly service to Portland, introduced in early November, further strengthened our US network.”