Cathay Pacific-Dragonair airfreight volume rises 12pc in August

HONG KONG's Cathay Pacific Airways and its unit Dragonair handled a total of 142,597 tons of cargo in August, a 12.1 per cent increase year on year.

The Cathay-Dragonair monthly load factor dropped 1.7 per cent year on year to 65.3 per cent while capacity increased 14.1 per cent. Year to date, the combined cargo tonnage rose 1.7 per cent to 1.03 million tons against a capacity rise of 6.5 per cent.

"The cargo market showed signs of becoming more buoyant in August, though our tonnage growth still lagged behind growth in capacity," said Cathay cargo chief Ron Mathison.

"Demand out of mainland China continued strong, but yield remained under pressure on northeast Asian routes. We recently added another flight each week to Dallas and Atlanta, turning it into a daily service," said Mr Mathison.

Said Cathay sales chief Ian Shiu: "The strong traffic we saw in July continued through August for both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair boosted by the summer holiday peak."