Cathay Cargo saw its revenues and cargo traffic increase in the first half of the year as it benefitted from rising demand for e-commerce shipments and extra belly capacity.
The cargo business saw first-half revenue increase 1.5% year on year to HK$10.9bn, while cargo traffic was up 4.6% to 4.1bn cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) and tonnages increased by 10.4% to 719,000 tonnes.
Capacity was up 11.4% year on year to 6.8bn available cargo tonne kms (ACTKs) as passenger services continued to be reinstated over the past year following the pandemic. The cargo load factor was down 3.9 percentage points to 59.9%.
The carrier said that demand from its Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area (GBA) was robust in the first half with solid demand for e-commerce and traditional commodities, especially electronics, while its feeder ship link to Dongguan continued to expand.
"The overall tonnage growth in Hong Kong and the rest of the Greater Bay Area exceeded our capacity growth compared with the same period last year," the company said.
"Connectivity between the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Logistics Park in Dongguan and HKIA was enhanced with ferry frequencies increasing to 19 sailings per week, up from 12 sailings per week last year."
The growth in the cargo business was primarily driven by the recovery of passenger flights with tonnage growing in the Americas, Europe, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Cathay Cargo also increased freighter frequency on transpacific routes in March to cater for the quarter-end air cargo peak season.
"Perishables and pharmaceuticals exports from Europe to Hong Kong and other regional destinations was strong," the airline group said. "E-commerce business was robust, especially from the Chinese Mainland on long-haul routes to the Americas.
"There was also an encouraging growth on machinery movements from Japan, the Taiwan region and South Korea. Mail tonnage also grew significantly on North Asia routes with the increase of
passenger flights in the region."
Cathay also resumed freighter operations in Ho Chi Minh City with one freighter per week from the summer schedule.
"Apart from general cargo, perishables and seafood continued to drive the growth from Southeast Asia," Cathay said. "Perishables such as fresh products and chilled meats comprised a large proportion of the cargo carried from the Southwest Pacific."
It added that general cargo, dangerous goods, perishables, and valuable goods continued to drive the growth from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
In total, the carrier operated freighters serving 41 destinations outside Hong Kong as of 30th June 2024.
Its freighter fleet at the end of the half stood at 20 aircraft - six Boeing 747-400ERFs and 14 747-8Fs - which is the same as last year.
Meanwhile, subsidiary Air Hong Kong reported a profit of HK$411m for the first half of 2024 compared with HK$402m last year.
"Its results have been consistently solid," Cathay said.
The Air Hong Kong freighter fleet has grown by a single aircraft since the start of the year to 17 - six Airbus A300-600Fs, two A330-200Fs and nine A330-300P2Fs.
The carrier has offloaded one A300 freighter and added two A330-300P2Fs.
