Cathay, Dragonair cargo up 8.5% in April

Cathay, Dragonair cargo up 8.5% in April Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and sister airline Dragonair carried 142,106 tons of cargo and mail between them in April, up 8.5 percent on the same month last year.
   The two airlines’ monthly capacity, measured in available cargo and mail ton kilometers, climbed 8.4 percent. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.7 percentage points year-on-year to 67.6 percent.
   After four months, Cathay and Dragonair’s combined cargo volume has grew 7.4 percent to 550,022 tons compared to a capacity rise of 8.2 percent.
   'Demand out of Hong Kong and Mainland China remained quite robust in April,” said Ron Mathison, Cathay Pacific’s director and general manager cargo. “However, increasing jet fuel prices are inflicting serious damage on our freighter business and we stand to face increasing competition from ocean cargo in May and June, which are traditionally slack months for cargo out of Asia.'