Although total cargo and mail uplifted by the Cathay Pacific Group fell in December compared with a year ago, there are some bright spots among the latest freight statistics.
“Our overall volume in December was on par with November and we enjoyed good all-round support from and to all the regions in our network all the way through to the final week of the year,” said chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam.
“Our mainland China and Southwest Pacific routes were the outstanding performers, recording both month-on-month and year-on-year improvement in sales.”
He said that the focus on specialised cargo solutions continued to offer positives. “We carried more mail and Fresh LIFT cargo, backed by strong demand for e-commerce and seasonal produce towards the end of the year. We also celebrated our first ever freighter flight to South America, carrying seasonal cherries from Chile back to Asia.”
Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried 177,561 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, a decrease of 2.9% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor declined by 1.3 percentage points to 66.4%.
Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs), was down by 3.8% while cargo and mail revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTKs) dropped by 5.7%.
For 2019 as a whole, the tonnage fell by 6.1 against a 0.3% reduction in capacity and a 6.7% decrease in RFTKs as compared to 2018.
Lam admitted that “2019 was an incredibly challenging year for both the Cathay Pacific Group and Hong Kong” and that, as previously reported, the group’s overall second-half performance will be significantly below that of the first half.
