Cathay Pacific cargo volumes up 28.8% in February

The airline, along with affiliate Dragonair, moved a combined 130,467 tons of cargo for the month.    Cathay Pacific Airways and affiliate airline Dragonair saw a 28 percent year-over-year increase in cargo volumes for February. The airfreight carriers handled 130,467 tons of cargo and mail last month.
   The airlines’ combined load factor rose by 6.2 percentage points to 65.5 percent compared to February 2014, while their capacity increased 25.6 percent and cargo and mail revenue ton kilometers (RTKs) flown climbed by 38.7 percent.
   For the first two months of 2015, volume has grown 19.6 percent, capacity has increased 16 percent and RTKs were up 24.5 percent from the same period in 2014.
   “The high year-on-year tonnage growth reflects the overall improvement in the world’s air cargo markets compared to early 2014, along with the extra capacity added by Cathay Pacific in response to the increase in demand,” Mark Sutch, general manager of cargo sales and marketing at Cathay Pacific, said in a statement. “February’s figures were spurred by a surge in exports prior to Mainland factories shutting down for the Chinese New Year holidays. Demand fell away over the holiday period, as expected, but saw quite a rapid pick-up, particularly on the North American lanes.”