The U.S. West Coast port congestion appears to have helped boost cargo business for sister airlines Cathay Pacific and Dragonair as they reported healthy North American freight activity last month.
“Demand fell away, as expected, after the very busy end to 2014, but the markets remained relatively buoyant, particularly on the North American lanes,” said Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales and marketing.
“Traffic out of the key Hong Kong and Mainland China markets was much stronger than in the same month last year. We saw a pick-up in demand as January progressed and by the end of the month we were operating close to a full freighter schedule. We expect to see something of a mini-rush before the Chinese New Year holidays begin,” he continued.
In a release made today, parent company Cathay Pacific Airways said combined traffic figures for Cathay and Dragonair for the first month of 2015 show an increase in both the number of passengers carried and the cargo and mail tonnage uplifted compared to the same month in 2014.
The two carriers carried a total of 2,612,964 passengers in January, an increase of 2.7% compared to the same month last year. The passenger load factor shrank by 0.7 percentage points to 82.7% while capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), increased by 7.3%.
The airlines carried 147,275 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 12.5% compared to the previous January. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.9 percentage points to 63.4%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 8.9% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown were up by 14.1%.
Group data indicate an 11.3% increase in RTKs flown on North American routes in January compared to the same month last year, the biggest increase in terms of market growth for the company in the month reviewed.
Photo: Thirdsecondppsk
