Perishables, e-comm see Cathay carry 10% more cargo in July
In the first seven months of 2024, tonnage increased by 10.3% to 846,261 tonnes
Cathay Pacific carried 126,797 tonnes of cargo in July 2024, an increase of 9.6 percent compared with July 2023.
"The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 0.5 percent year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 58.3 percent while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 2.1 percent year on year," says an official release.
In the first seven months of 2024, tonnage increased by 10.3 percent to 846,261 tonnes against a 9.9 percent increase in AFTKs and a 3.8 percent increase in RFTKs as compared with the same period for 2023.
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau says: "Cargo demand remained strong in July with healthy year-on-year tonnage growth. Across our network, our tonnage was two percent higher than in June and 10 percent above July last year. Given July is traditionally a softer month for demand, this was encouraging and bodes well for August. In terms of commodity mix, we observed an uptick in perishable goods shipments from Southeast Asia and the South West Pacific into Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, and increased tonnage through our Cathay Expert services using the dedicated freighters for project shipments and outsized cargo. E-commerce shipments continued to be the main driver of volumes from the Greater Bay Area.
“We continue to enhance our special solutions, and in July we re-launched Cathay Courier with a focus on digitalisation to add greater transparency and reassurance for our customers when they choose to send their urgent shipments with Cathay Cargo. Customers will now be able to track their shipments online. Along with this newly added feature, Cathay Courier provides our customers with speed, guaranteed capacity and dedicated handling for their time-sensitive, high-value shipments."
Outlook
Demand will remain at healthy levels, Lau says "as we head towards what we anticipate will be a strong peak from September until the end of the year. We will be increasing our freighter frequencies on transpacific routes and making full use of our long-haul passenger belly services to cater for customers’ requirements.”
