Air China sees air cargo traffic rise on international demand

Air China registered a 6.2% year-on-year improvement in revenue freight tonne kms (RFTKs) during the first half of the year thanks to its international routes.
The Chinese flag carrier handled 6.4bn RFTK during the first half of the year, while capacity increased by the lower amount of 1.9%.
This helped push its cargo load factor by 2.2 percentage points on the same period last year to 55.1%, while cargo yield increased by 12.7% on last year to RMB1.27.
The carrier said that it had improved the alignment between its carrier and cargo businesses during the period.
"In the first half of 2017, the global trade recovery accelerated with emerging signs of growth pick-up in the international transport market.
"However, domestic market growth was relatively slow amid China’s economic transformation. Air China Cargo has proactively transformed its business model, and continuously strengthened the passenger and cargo business alignment to steadily improved the load factor of bellyhold.
"The route structure has been optimised with better margin contribution. By levering its trunk routes advantage through resource sharing, new business initiatives progressed with pleasing results.
"These various measures have proactively addressed the challenging operating environment for the
cargo business to maintain profitability."
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