Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways said combined cargo volumes for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair rose slightly in March as the busy trans-Pacific lane made up for the slack in European demand.
Passenger traffic figures for the same period were brighter, showing a double-digit increase in passengers carried compared to the same month in 2014.
The two airlines carried 157,688 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 1.5% compared to March 2014. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 1.7 percentage points to 68.4%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, fell by 0.1% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown rose by 2.4%.
For the first quarter of 2015, tonnage rose by 12.3% against a capacity increase of 9.8% and a 15.4% rise in RTKs.
“Air freight demand was generally robust throughout March, helped by the month-end and quarter-end production rush out of the key manufacturing cities in Mainland China,” said Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific’s general manager of cargo sales and marketing.
“Once again the main focus of our business was on the transpacific lanes, with traffic into and out of North America spurred by the continuing congestion in sea ports on the West Coast of the USA. Demand to Europe remained below expectations, with business affected by the ongoing economic woes and the depreciation of the euro.”
On the other hand, passenger traffic grew 11% compared to the same month last year with a total of 2,887,106 passengers carried. The passenger load factor grew by 5 percentage points to 87.3%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, increased by 5.7%.
For the first quarter of 2015, passenger traffic grew by 8.6% while capacity was up by 6.9%
Cathay Pacific general manager of revenue management Patricia Hwang said: “March is traditionally a shoulder season between the Chinese New Year and Easter peak periods, but this year saw passenger demand for the month rising above expectations. Demand was strong in all cabins, with high load factors to and from Southwest Pacific, Europe and the UK. Demand on the US routes caught up with the big increase in capacity introduced last year, while travel in the region was generally strong, particularly to Japan, Thailand and Singapore.”
Photo: Adrian Pingstone
