Source: Cathay Cargo
Cathay Pacific has revealed its operational figures for January, and it was a good month for its airfreight arm.
Cathay Cargo carried 130, 572 tonnes of cargo in January, 13.7% more than in the same month of 2024.
The number of revenue freight tonne-km flown rose by 9.9 percent year on year, to reach 702m.
Capacity was also up, available freight tonne-km capacity rising by 14.7% year on year.
As a consequence, the load factor fell by 2.5 percentage points compared to January 2024.
Chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau observed: “Cargo got off to a slower start after the New Year holidays, but demand gradually picked up pace as we approached the traditional pre-Lunar New Year rush.
“Perishables and seasonal produce from the Southwest Pacific remained robust, and we also observed increased demand for our Cathay Secure solution attributed to increased valuable cargoes from Southeast Asia as well as South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.”
Less positively, Lau noted: “Softer cargo demand is expected following the Lunar New Year period.”
Last week, Cathay Cargo flew approximately 70 horses into its home hub of Hong Kong who were going to appear at the Hong Kong International Horse Show.
The Longines show was held at AsiaWorld-Expo from 14-16 February.
Flexibility
In late January, director cargo Tom Owen said that Cathay Cargo was poised to be flexible with its schedule, network and freighter fleet as it awaits global trade developments.
This approach to business is part of Cathay Cargo’s strategy to build resilience into its operations, he said, adding: “In particular, we’re going to be looking very closely at our schedule, network optimisation and the deployment of our freighter fleet, as we don’t know how trade flows will evolve with the changing administration in the US and the other factors around the world that are currently impacting global trade.”
