Cathay Sept. volume up, load factor down

Cathay Sept. volume up, load factor down    Cathay Pacific said Thursday its air freight volume for September rose 9.6 percent from the same month in 2009.
   Cathay and sister airline Dragonair carried 146,152 tons of cargo during the month. The airlines' load factor was 69.8 percent, a drop of 4.6 percent, while capacity rose 25.4 percent. Year to date, tonnage has grown 20.5 percent, compared to a capacity increase of 12.7 percent.
   “We increased our capacity in September in preparation for the upcoming cargo peak, with all our freighters back in operation and a number of frequencies added on key trunk routes,' said James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing. 'Demand was up compared to September 2009, but at the same time we saw a significant increase in competitor capacity to Europe and North America. This led to a decrease in our overall load factor to below 70 percent.”