STRONG DEMAND FROM CHINA LIFTS CATHAY PACIFIC CARGO

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Monday, 24 July 2006

In the first six months of 2006, Cathay Pacific carried 8,144,335 passengers, up 11.1 per cent on the first half of 2005, while the amount of freight carried was up 10.5 per cent at 572,552 tonnes. Rises in passenger and cargo traffic stayed ahead of capacity growth – 10.8 per cent for available seat kilometres (ASKs) and 5.8 per cent for available cargo/mail tonne kilometres (ATKs).  In June, the airline carried a total of 1,392,462 passengers, up 10.7 per cent on the same month last year. The passenger load factor for the month hit 82.8per cent, up 2.7 percentage points on 2005. The passenger number increase was marginally above the increase in capacity, measured in ASKs, which grew by 10.4 per cent. The airline carried 96,255 tonnes of freight in June, up 7.6 per cent year-on-year. The growth in tonnage was above the capacity rise for the month, which came in at 6.9 per cent measured in ATKs. The airline’s cargo business received a boost from the launch of a new service to Mumbai and Chennai in India.

Cathay Pacific director and general manager Cargo Ron Mathison said: “For the past few months the story has been very similar – very strong demand out of Hong Kong and China to our long-haul freight destinations, with weaker traffic coming back due to excess capacity in the market. New competitors are coming into the market all the time so we don’t expect things to get any easier. However, we will get a welcome capacity boost when our second B747-400BCF enters service in mid-July.”