Cathay cargo volume up, but capacity growing faster

Cathay cargo volume up, but capacity growing faster Cathay Pacific Airways said Thursday that cargo tonnage between its two cargo airlines, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair, lagged behind capacity increases for January even though volume grew over January 2007.
   'Cathay Pacific and Dragonair between them carried 136,614 tons of freight in January, a rise of 9 percent year on year, while the cargo and mail load factor rose 1.4 points to 63.6 percent,' Cathay said in a statement. 'Cargo capacity, measured in available cargo/mail ton kilometers, was up 10.2 percent for the month.'
   The results of the past few months are a welcome rebound gains through most of 2007 were very flat.
   'Our cargo performance in January was satisfactory, though the pre-Chinese New Year rush was not as pronounced as in previous years,' said Ron Mathison, Cathay Pacific director and general manager. 'We expect the market to be generally slower in February, though we look forward to the cargo opportunities presented when we begin expanding our passenger services to India at the end of the month.'