Cathay Pacific Says Holiday Cargo Peak 'Unlikely'

Cargo transported by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and sister carrier Dragonair fell for the seventh straight month in October, and the company warned the usual year-end peak was “unlikely.”

James Woodrow, general manager cargo sales and marketing, said there was now little cause for optimism for the rest of the quarter, largely because of expectations that Chinese exports will continue to sag.

"The air freight industry remained weak overall in October, with our key Hong Kong and China markets continuing to be soft,” he said.

The two airlines carried 135,998 metric tons of cargo and mail in October, down 17.5 percent compared to a year earlier. Measured in freight tonne kilometres the year-on-year decline in October was 15.9 percent and for the first 10 months of the year was down 4.3 percent.

The carriers’ cargo and mail load factor dropped 8.9 percentage points last month to 66.2 percent, while capacity measured in available cargo and mail tonnage fell by 4.7 percent year-over-year.

Woodrow said the carrier was continuing to look for new markets into which it could deploy capacity. “The recently launched freighter services to Bengaluru, Chongqing and Chengdu have been well received and on 15 November we are launching a twice-weekly service to Zaragoza - our first time to fly to Spain,” he said.

-- Contact Mike King at michael@borderline.eu.com