Mike King, Special Correspondent | Jul 16, 2012 8:47AM EDT
Cathay Pacific Airways saw month-on-month cargo volume hold steady in June, but throughput was still slower than a year earlier.
Combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair cargo and mail volumes lifted last month totaled 127,698 metric tons, down 5.4 percent compared to June 2012 but marginally above the 123,403 tons handled in May.
The carriers’ cargo and mail load factor was down by 1.3 percentage points year-over-year to 65.7 percent, capacity fell 5.2 percent, and cargo and mail tonne kilometers flown dropped by 7.1 percent.
In the first six months of the year, volumes were 10.1 percent lower than a year earlier with capacity down 4.3 percent.
James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing, said there had been no signs of a demand upturn in June in the carriers’ key markets, foremost among which is China. Although the decline of tonnage had not been as sharp as in previous months, that was a reflection of the weakness of the cargo market in June 2011 rather than a sign of improving market conditions.
“Traffic within the Asia Pacific region continued to hold up well while the transpacific routes were spurred by the shipment of cherries from the US,” he added.
“Given the continued weakness of the market, our priority remains to manage capacity in line with demand.”
Contact Mike King at michael@borderline.eu.com.