It was a sluggish first month in the new year for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, as cargo and mail tonnage declined in January compared to the same month in 2013.
A Cathay Pacific Airways statement said performance was affected by a sharp drop in demand after the pre-Christmas season high and by the business lull that came with the celebration of the Lunar New Year.
The Hong Kong-based airlines carried 130,955 tonnes of cargo and mail in January, a drop of 1.4 percent year-over-year. Load factor fell by 2.5 percentage points to 60.5 percent, and capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, increased by 8.3 percent. Cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers flown were up by 4 percent.
“The markets softened quite sharply after the pre-Christmas peak and we didn’t see any significant surge in demand prior to Chinese New Year, though there were healthy imports of seafood and other perishable items into Greater China and North Asia in advance of the holidays,” said Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing.
“Demand fizzled out as the long holiday began in mainland China and factories closed in other manufacturing centers in the region. We expect the pickup in February to be slow.”
Photo: Matt @ PEK
