Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal expands its customer base
04 / 11 / 2022
Mark Watts. Source: CPCT
Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal (CPCT) handled 1.4m tonnes in 2021, a 4% increase over 2020, and will celebrate 10 years in business at Hong Kong International Airport in 2023.
Mark Watts, chief operating officer of Cathay Pacific Services Ltd (CPSL) – which runs the cargo-handling facility for the Cathay Pacific parent group – says that in addition to its scheduled airline customers, the cargo terminal handled a further 19 charter operators in 2021.
“We currently serve 20 international scheduled airline customers plus the three Hong Kong-based airlines in the Cathay Pacific Group: Cathay Pacific, Air Hong Kong, and HK Express.
“In addition to these, we have also worked with another 19 charter airline customers during the pandemic.
“The amount of cargo coming through the cargo terminal continued to be affected by reduced capacity operated by Hong Kong carriers in 2021 due to the restrictions on aircrew. We were able to mitigate this to an extent by capturing some of the charter and preighter business that sprung up during the pandemic”.
As well as the Cathay Pacific Group cargo airlines, the terminal also has All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa Cargo and China Cargo Airlines among its customer base.
The terminal did not suffer staff availability issues or lockdowns that impacted other cargo operations in 2021: “We were able to keep the operation running throughout and very smoothly. One of the biggest challenges was on our people.
“From the middle of last year there were a lot of additional restrictions placed on frontline cargo workers at the terminal and some of those staff had to take PCR tests every two days. We implemented a testing facility here at the CPCT to support them.”
Cargo terminal staff were also segregated into smaller groups to ensure there was no mixing in different areas in the cargo terminal, to minimise the risk of any spread of the virus: “But throughout 2021 and indeed during Hong Kong’s fifth wave in early 2022 our people adjusted to the new processes and did a fantastic job. I’m also very proud that 100% of our staff were fully vaccinated before the end of last year.”
Preighter aircraft presented freight-handling issues, but one innovation saw scissor-lift catering trucks repurposed to load cargo directly into the passenger cabin.
In the two years before Covid, the 2.7m tonne capacity CPCT handled circa 2m tonnes per annum and management is already planning for future investment, prompted in part by the cargo growth opportunities of the upcoming Three-Runway System at Hong Kong.
Source: CPCT
Construction of a new cold room for pharmaceuticals, being built to IATA’s CEIV Pharma standard at a cost of HK$50m, will soon be completed, doubling the temperature-controlled storage area.
In addition to the third runway expansion, the Airport Authority Hong Kong is also in talks to develop a Hong Kong Logistics Park in Dongguan that will see cargo accepted in Dongguan seaport and transported via sea to a dedicated cargo pier at Hong Kong International Airport.
CPSL supports this initiative and has already been participating in trials for this intermodal project that will promote airfreight growth.
Digitalisation investment saw CPCT late last year implement MobiFresh, an IoT-enabled cold chain solution for temperature-sensitive goods in the cube-shaped container’s journey through the cargo terminal. Each MobiFresh has real-time tracking of its location, temperature and battery levels.
CPSL is also partnering with Cathay Pacific to implement IATA’s Cargo iQ standards, such as Freight into Warehouse control (FIW) and Freight out of Warehouse control (FOW) freight planning and monitoring.
Says Watts: “Digital leadership is an important focus area for us, not only because our customers require terminal operators to be more transparent and to provide more real-time data, but for us to find ways to become more productive and automated.”
