Cathay February volume up 19%

Cathay February volume up 19%    Cathay Pacific and sister airline Dragonair saw air freight volume rise 18.7 percent to 119,801 tons in February, compared to the same month in 2009.
   The cargo load factor was 77.1 percent, a rise of 12.4 percent, while capacity, was down 2.1 percent. For the year to date, volume has risen 24.9 percent while capacity has declined 1.5 percent.
   'We experienced a spike in demand prior to Chinese New Year but then, as expected, there was softening in the key mainland markets over the holiday period,' said Titus Diu, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing. 'However, demand for the month as a whole was fairly robust and the fact that we canceled a number of scheduled services helped us to achieve a high load factor together with some increases in yield.'