Cathay’s volume up slightly in February

   Cathay Pacific Airways and sister airline Dargonair saw cargo volume rise 0.8 percent year-on-year in February.
   The Hong Kong-based airline handled 117,880 tons of cargo during the month, though its load factor fell 1.8 percent, to 65.8 percent, thanks to a 4.7 percent rise in capacity.
   Year-to-date, volume has declined 10.4 percent, while capacity has dropped 1.6 percent.
   “On the surface the February cargo figures look reasonably okay, but comparisons with 2011 are distorted by the Chinese New Year effect,” said James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing. “Our key markets remained soft, with weak demand to Europe in particular out of Hong Kong and Shanghai. We continued to manage capacity in line with demand, which helped to keep load factors reasonably stable. At the end of February, demand out of Hong Kong and mainland China did improve due to large project shipments.”