Cathay volume up 18% for 2010, 12% in December

Cathay volume up 18% for 2010, 12% in December    Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said it and sister airline Dragonair saw December air freight volume increase 12 percent on the same month in 2009, to 161,302 tons.
   Total tonnage carried in 2010 was 1.8 million tons, an 18.1 percent increase over 2009.
   “Freight volumes held up well through to the end of 2010 helped by year-end cancellations from our competitors,” said James Woodrow, Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing, in a statement. “The load factor was marginally down on the same month in 2009, but there was a significant growth in tonnage and yield held up well. We will see some slackening in the market in early January though we anticipate an improvement in the second half of the month prior to the Chinese New Year holiday.”