Cathay Pacific Group has ended 2017 with cargo and mail tonnage growing at double digit rates, finishing with a strong month in December.
The group covering Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon handled 2.05 million tonnes of cargo and mail in 2017, 10.9 per cent higher than in 2016, and volumes grew by 10.2 per cent in December to 192,190 tonnes.
Cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres increased by nine per cent during 2017 to 11.6 billion and by 9.2 per cent in December to 1.1 billion.
Capacity measured in available tonne kilometres was up 3.6 per cent 17.1 billion in 2017 and by 5.7 per cent in December to 1.5 billion.
Load factors for the year rose by 3.4 percentage points to 67.8 per cent and by 2.4 percentage points in December to 71.9 per cent.
Cathay Pacific director of commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam says: “Cargo’s strong momentum continued well into December, with volumes growing well ahead of capacity. We were able to sustain a high load factor and high yield during the month. As a result, revenue efficiency gains were observed in all route groups.
“Not only did our home market of Hong Kong perform well, strong cargo feed from across the network enabled us to achieve an all-time weekly tonnage uplift record in the week ending 9 December. In terms of the nature of commodities carried, perishables were much in demand in the lead up to the festive season.”
