India helps boost Cathay’s cargo in Q1

India was a star performer for Cathay Pacific in the first quarter as the carrier saw the positive growth of 2017 carry over intothis year, with yields up and cargo volumes across network group ahead of capacity.
That was the message from Anand Yedery, regional cargo manager South Asia, Middle east and Africa (SAMEA), writing in the Hong Kong-based carrier’s Cargo Clan magazine, who said that tonnage rose by 7.8% against a 4.7% increase in capacity, while there was a 7.7% increase in cargo Mail revenue tonne km (RTKs).
India is "certainly playing its part" in that positive first quarter, said Yedery, with "each of our six ports reporting tonnage growth of more than 40%".
He continued: "We have operated additional freighters, including 18 to Delhi alone. While the number of passenger aircraft operating in the Indian market is growing, this means the additional cargo capacity is in belly holds.
"There is therefore a continuing opportunity for operators to handle demand for main deck shipments. And we seem to be getting the balance right between flexibility and guaranteed space for our customers.
"Nearly two-thirds of our uplift is general cargo, but we also carried 93 aircraft engines and 66 cars in the first quarter itself."
While India contributes nearly two-thirds of the cargo revenue for SAMEA, and the trade route to the US is the airline’s biggest market, said Yedery: "We are looking forward to opportunities offered by our growing links to Africa, with Cape Town coming online later this year. Most of all we are please have a positive story to tell after some challenging years." 

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