HONG Kong's Cathay Pacific carried 124,568 tonnes of cargo in June 2024, an increase of 12 per cent compared with the same month last year
HONG Kong's Cathay Pacific carried 124,568 tonnes of cargo in June 2024, an increase of 12 per cent compared with the same month last year. The month's cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) increased 5.6 per cent year on year. The cargo load factor decreased by 2.1 percentage points to 59.6 per cent, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 9.4 per cent year on year.
In the first six months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.5 per cent to a total of 719,464 tonnes, against an 11.4 per cent increase in AFTKs and a 4.6 per cent increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.
Commenting on the month's cargo business, Cathay Pacific's chief customer and commercial officer Lavinia Lau said: 'June is traditionally a slower month for air cargo; however, demand was stronger than anticipated and we observed strong year-on-year tonnage growth from Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Japan and Europe in particular.
'Across our network, our tonnage was 3 per cent higher than May and 12 per cent above June last year. In terms of commodity mix, we observed an uptick of pharmaceuticals shipments, especially from Europe.'
She added: 'In June, we relaunched Cathay Expert to provide customers with a fully customized handling solution for their odd size, heavy or fragile cargo. The response from our customers has been positive and we observed a 34 per cent tonnage improvement for Cathay Expert compared with the previous month.'
Looking ahead, Ms Lau said: 'The second half of the year is the traditional peak period and we expect the healthy demand we have seen throughout the first half of the year to continue.
'Market sentiment, particularly out of Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, continues to be positive. We will continue to adjust our freighter capacity to accommodate our customers' needs, including adding more freighter capacity to the Americas.
In June, the airline carried a total of a total of 1,837,706 passengers in June, an increase of 18.7 per cent compared with June 2023.
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