CATHAY Pacific’s cargo volumes last month declined compared with the previous month despite it being the start of the traditional Christmas period, according to the airline’s latest available statistics.
The Hong Kong-based company carried 103,092 tonnes of cargo over the month, a decrease of about 6% on October. Cargo flight capacity was down about 2% in November compared with the previous month.
Last month’s total cargo carried was a decrease of 23.8% compared with November 2021, and a 42.1% decrease compared with the same period in 2019.
November’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres decreased 27.8% year-on-year and were down 38% compared with November 2019.
The cargo load factor decreased by 15.6 percentage points to 66.9%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), decreased by 11% year-on-year, and was down by 36.4% versus November 2019.
In the first 11 months of 2022, the tonnage decreased by 12.6% against a 20.7% decrease in capacity and a 30.6% decrease in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2021.
Cathay Pacific chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam said in November overall, the airline operated about 64% of pre-pandemic cargo capacity levels in November.
“Production activities in the Chinese mainland and trade flows remained constrained. While we did witness a mild uptick in e-commerce movements into the Americas around the Black Friday shopping period, a similar surge on regional lanes was more short-lived,” Mr Lam said.
“Conversely, movements of perishable goods from South America as well as Australia and New Zealand were relatively active. As such, we operated five non-scheduled services from Darwin, Australia carrying fresh seasonal produce into North Asia to capitalise on this activity.”
Mr Lam said Cathay Pacific refreshed its pharmaceuticals freight offering under a new name, Cathay Pharma.
“This has seen us enhance our customer proposition, making it easier for customers to identify all of the possible options for pharmaceutical shipments in a more streamlined way,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mr Lam said the airline’s expanding passenger travel network would provide cargo customers with more destinations and greater frequencies.
“However, we expect headwinds in the air cargo market to continue in the short term until supply chains in the Chinese mainland become more stable and inventory levels in key consumer markets reduce,” he said.
