Cathay Pacific Airways reported higher combined cargo and mail tonnage for the Hong Kong-based airline and its sister company Dragonair in October 2012, as the release of new hi-tech consumer items boosted traffic.
This is the second consecutive month that a year-on-year increase was logged, the company said.
In a statement, Cathay Pacific said the two airlines together carried 138,608 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 1.9 percent compared to October 2011. Cargo and mail load factor fell by 2.2 percentage points to 64 percent. Capacity, measured in available cargo and mail tonne kilometers, rose by 0.5 percent, while cargo and mail tonne kilometers flown dropped by 2.8 percent.
For the year to date, tonnage declined by 7.3 percent against a capacity reduction of 4.3 percent.
“We saw a small uptick in demand in October, driven by the launch of a number of new hi-tech consumer products out of key manufacturing centers in the region,” said James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales and marketing.
“Following a lull in demand over the long National Day holiday period in Mainland China, we were therefore able to operate close to a full freighter schedule by the end of the month. However, in the longer term, demand from Asia to Europe will continue to be affected by the economic fragility in a number of euro-zone countries.”
Photo: Dave Hamster
