MARCH saw double-digit good news for Cathay Pacific Cargo and its sister company Dragonair.
Between them, the Hong Kong-based carriers lifted a total of 155,352 tonnes of cargo and mail in the month, an increase of 13.8 per cent on the same month last year.
The cargo and mail load factor rose by 0.3 percentage points to 66.7 per cent, whilst capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 18.8 per cent.
Cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres flown were up by 19.3 per cent.
March’s contribution meant that the first quarter of 2014 saw overall tonnage rise by 3.9 per cent against a capacity increase of 9.2 per cent.
Mark Sutch, Cathay’s general manager of cargo sales and marketing, says: “After a poor start to the year in January and February, our cargo business benefited from a significant upsurge in traffic last month.
“There was a strong pick-up in demand out of both Hong Kong and mainland China and we were able to operate close to a full freighter schedule for much of the month along with a number of extra sectors,” he adds.
There was strong demand to and from the USA as Cathay launched another destination, Columbus, Ohio, during the period.
“Our recently launched services to Guadalajara and Mexico City also saw healthy loads.”
