Sister airlines Cathay Pacific and Dragonair reported carrying a total of 138,448 tonnes of cargo and mail in May, an increase of 13.9 percent compared to the same month last year.
The cargo and mail load factor rose by 1.9 percentage points to 63 percent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 14 percent, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown were up by 17.5 percent.
For the year to the end of May, tonnage rose by 7.3 percent, while capacity was up by 10.9 percent and RTKs increased by 11.3 percent.
“We saw an upswing in demand out of the key Hong Kong and Mainland China markets in May, though the rumors of major product launches failed to materialize,” noted Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing.
“Demand on the transpacific lanes remained robust, boosted by the beginning of the fruit season out of the US,” he added. “However, the momentum in Europe continued to be weak and we trimmed back our freighter schedule to the continent accordingly.”
Intra-Asia demand was generally in line with expectations though exports out of Dhaka in Bangladesh continued to be affected by the unrest in the country, he said.
The Airports Council International (ACI), on the other hand, said global airfreight traffic sustained its momentum in April with the overall improvement in world trade and recovery in global demand.
The two largest global airfreight markets, North America and Asia-Pacific, continued to lead the airfreight recovery, since both regions attained growth levels of over 5 percent, ACI said.
The key freight hubs of Shanghai, Memphis, and Hong Kong experienced strong gains of 10.6 percent, 9.3 percent, and 6 percent.
Except for Africa, all regions experienced growth in year-over-year airfreight volumes, the association stated.
Airfreight has also seen a strong turnaround since 2013, said ACI World’s economics director Rafael Echevarne. “Year-over-year growth has remained in the realm of 4% over the previous six months. While there are signs of a Chinese slowdown on several fronts, the rise in global demand has boosted Chinese exports. Some key hubs in the region continue to perform well with respect to airfreight volumes as compared to previous years.”
Photo: Aero Icarus
