Cathay sees peak perks for cargo

Cathay Cargo is expecting increased cargo loads for the traditional peak air cargo season.

Tim Wong, general manager cargo service delivery at Cathay Cargo said that the air cargo market is “beginning to warm up”.

“There is no doubt that the air-cargo market is beginning to warm up both from a seasonal peak perspective, but also ahead of the annual ‘shopping holidays’ of Black Friday in the US and Europe and Singles’ Day in the Chinese Mainland.

“As was the case over the summer, this is being led by exports, particularly e-commerce and consumer goods, from the Greater Bay Area.”

However, he added that shortages of aircraft spare parts is temporarily causing changes to freighter schedules.

“We have also been experiencing some temporary disruptions to our freighter schedule. This is a consequence of some of the issues that are affecting the wider aviation supply chain, particularly the availability of spare parts.”

He warned: “We will be carrying out a preventative maintenance programme, which may mean some programmed cancellations.”

Meanwhile, Cathay reported improved cargo demand in September, the start of the traditional peak period.

The airline carried 119,963 tonnes of cargo last month, an increase of 15.3% compared with September 2022.

The month’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 16.9% year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 5.3 percentage points to 61.1%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), increased by 26.9% year on year.

 In the first nine months of 2023, the tonnage increased by 20.1% against a 77.7% increase in capacity and a 53.8% increase in RFTKs, compared with the same period for 2022.

Chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau said: “On the cargo side, September marked the start of the traditional peak period and demand strengthened across most of the network compared with the previous month. Capacity also grew as passenger services were added on some key cargo routes.”

Lau said that, as with previous months, e-commerce is helping growth.

“E-commerce remained a bright spot, particularly on the Americas trade lanes. Our mail business continued to gain momentum, with several post offices around the world adopting our newly launched Cathay Mail solution to improve their customer experience.”

The airline is positive on cargo demand until the end of the year.

“For cargo, loads are expected to build over the next two months reflecting the year-end demand, and we have been adding freighter capacity on our transpacific routes to cater for this,” added Lau.

“Our intermodal sea-air feeder services from Dongguan will continue to see growth in throughput, providing customers a cost-effective option to move freight from the Greater Bay Area to the Hong Kong hub and onto our global network.”

Cathay Pacific cargo volumes hold up ahead of peak season

E-commerce and fresh shipments support Cathay Pacific volumes