Cathay cargo chief sounds off on economy, destinations

Cathay cargo chief sounds off on economy, destinations Cathay Pacific’s new head of cargo, Rupert Hogg, recently told the airline’s internal magazine CX World that cargo demand has held pretty steady considering the market turmoil and fuel costs the industry has experienced in the last six months.
   “So far this year demand has been holding up quite well in most major markets, though the rate of growth has been slowing,” he said. “To date the bigger challenge has been on the cost side of the equation, the price of fuel making it uneconomic to operate some flights regardless of demand. That said, and turning to the revenue side, it must be sensible to assume that the events of the last few weeks will have an impact, but at this stage it's difficult to know how that might manifest itself and which markets and trade flows will be affected.”
   Hogg, who in September took over from former director of cargo Ron Mathison, said cargo revenue accounts for around 30 percent of Cathay’s total revenue.
   “There are mutual benefits between the cargo and passenger sides of the business,” he said. “An extensive passenger network allows us to move cargo to more destinations around the world and have more options than we would if we were a pure freighter carrier. In return that cargo gives useful revenue support to flights that would otherwise rely on passenger business alone.”
   When asked about which destinations Cathay would like to add freighter services, he named two North American cities, but said delays from Boeing in delivering 747-8F freighters would push back the start date on those services.
   “We would like to be able to launch a planned joint service to Miami and Houston,” Hogg said. “The former in particular will give us greater access to the growing South American market. However, the launch date depends on the arrival of our next ER, which will be delayed by the strike at Boeing.”
   Finally, Hogg said India and China will remain vital components to Cathay’s cargo growth plans, especially given Hong Kong’s geographic position between Asia’s two giants.
   “In the longer term it is hard to imagine that China and India markets would be anything other than important markets, regardless of the vagaries of the world economy in the short term,” he said.