Mike King, Special Correspondent | May 16, 2012 11:17AM EDT
Cathay Pacific Airways saw a year-over-year decline in freight volume in April.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried 124,531 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, down 11 percent compared to a year earlier.
The Hong Kong-based carrier’s cargo and mail load factor was down by 5.0 percentage points in April to 63.3 percent despite a 6.8 percent cut in capacity as cargo and mail tonne kilometers flown dropped by 13.7 percent.
Cathay issued a profit warning earlier this month and pledged to cut operating costs in the face of high fuel prices, a poor cargo market and price pressure on its passenger business.
For the first four months, the carrier’s tonnage declined by 10.7 percent against a capacity drop of 3.3 percent.
James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing, said that after a temporary surge in business in March, driven by large shipments of hi-tech products from Mainland China, demand softened in key markets again in April.
“The general air cargo market remains soft, especially to Europe, though intra-Asia traffic is holding up better, helped by a recent expansion of the passenger network in the region,” he said.
“Looking forward, we will continue to manage capacity in line with demand, particularly on long-haul flights to Europe and Transpacific. Fuel prices continue to be a major concern on these long-haul routes.”
The latest figures from Airports Council International revealed “sluggish” freight volumes across the Asia Pacific region in March with airports recording a 1.9 percent year-over-year drop in volume.
Hong Kong (HKG), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Seoul Incheon (ICN) Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Dubai (DXB) were the top five airports in the region by air freight throughput in March.
Contact Mike King at michael@borderline.eu.com.
