November turned out to be another bumper month for Asian cargo carriers, although Cathay Pacific did see demand decline as a new air traffic control system was introduced in Hong Kong.
The latest airline statistics from Asia-based carriers show that six out of seven carriers included in the Air Cargo News monthly performance wrap up saw cargo demand improve in November.
The only carrier that did not record an improvement was Cathay Pacific, which registered a 0.2% year-on-year decline to 964m cargo and mail revenue tonne km.
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The airline operated fewer flights during the month in line with the cutover to a new air traffic control system in Hong Kong.
Moreover, while demand in traffic terms was down at the airline, there was a 4.6% year on year improvement in tonnage transported as new freighter services were launched.
Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing Mark Sutch said: “November saw our tonnage continue to grow, which was backed by strong exports of new products from Mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as special products from northeast Asia and the Americas.
“During the peak there were more ocean-to-air conversions. Apart from an increased load factor, yields have also improved month-on-month.
“In November, we introduced our twice-weekly freighter service to Portland, Oregon to support the growing export demand of a range of commodities from the Pacific Northwest of the US to Asia.
“We also launched a once-per-week freighter service to Brisbane West Wellcamp for carrying fresh produce and machineries in and out of the Southeast Queensland region.”
For the year to date, the Hong Kong airline group is 0.3% up on last year in terms of cargo traffic.
The biggest increase of the month was recorded by Air China, which registered its largest improvement of the year at 11.8% to 637m freight tonne km (FTK).
For the year to date demand is up 5.6% on last year to 6.3bn FTK.
There were also November improvements registered at China Airlines (up 5.1% to 477m freight revenue tonne km (FRTK)), China Eastern (4.8% up to 441m FRTK), China Southern (9.1% to 645m RTK), Eva Air (7.8% to 318m FTK) and SIA Cargo (3.4% to 627m FTK).
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