Cathay volume declines ease, yield remains low

Cathay volume declines ease, yield remains low    Cathay Pacific Airways said cargo volume fell 6.7 percent in July from the same month in 2008, an improvement over declines in previous months this year.
   Cathay and sister airline Dragonair handled 133,233 tons of cargo during the month, while capacity fell 12.6 percent. For the year, the airlines' volume is down 14.1 percent, compared to a capacity drop of 13.9 percent. Load factor fell 6.6 percent to 72.6 percent.
   'Our tonnage decline has seen successive reductions since the beginning of the year, and July's drop of 6.7 percent was the smallest year-on-year monthly drop so far in 2009,' said Titus Diu, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing. 'The indications now are that the massive slide in the air cargo market has bottomed out and we were encouraged to see an increase in demand out of our home market, Hong Kong. However, intense competition is still putting yield under considerable pressure.'