Cathay Pacific Cargo is launching a new scheduled freighter service between Hong Kong and Riyadh starting January 5 to capitalise on the growing e-commerce and general cargo demand.

The service will operate once per week every Tuesday using the airline's Boeing B747-400 ERF aircraf with a stopover in Dubai (DWC) on the return flight to Hong Kong.

"The airline has seen a growing demand for air cargo flights between Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong (HKG), a leading cargo and logistics hub in Asia," the Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific said.

"These new flights will meet the strong demand for shipments of e-commerce and other general cargo such as garments," it added.

Cathay Pacific Cargo has launched a number of scheduled and charter services recently to meet growing air cargo needs.

On 16 December, the airline launched a seasonal cargo service between Hong Kong and Hobart in Australia, providing an important airfreight lane for the export of fresh produce from Hobart to various parts of Asia via Hong Kong.

Meanwhile in September last year, the airline launched a temporary service to Pittsburgh in the US to serve the seasonal upsurge in demand.

In addition to operating a full freighter flight schedule, Cathay Pacific has also been operating thousands of pairs of cargo-only passenger flights, some with cargo loaded in the passenger cabins, and chartered hundreds of pairs of flights from its all-cargo subsidiary Air Hong Kong to provide additional air freight capacity.

Cargo remained as a bright spot for the airline as its passenger operations has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Increased demand for e-commerce, perishables

As of November, Cathay Pacific carried 116,853 tonnes of cargo and mail, recording a decrease of 34.3% compared to November 2019 but sustaining a month-on-month increase from the 114,346 tonnes carried in October — although the first 11 months of 2020 still saw tonnage carried by the airline falling 34.3%.

"Cargo demand further strengthened in November, largely driven by strong e-commerce traffic as well as solid movement of electronic products, perishables and automotive shipments across our network. We also continue to work on customised solutions for our business partners and notably we have commenced a series of chartered freighter flights serving Riyadh in Saudi Arabia,” Cathay Pacific Group Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said.

He added that the carrier have been “utilising our freighter resources to their fullest” while also mounting 728 pairs of cargo only passenger flights. This was 152 pairs – or 26% – more than what Cathay Pacific operated in October, and 30 of these carried cargo in the passenger cabins.

“From a cargo perspective ... In terms of specialised products, the airline along with our cargo terminal and ground-handling subsidiaries have been re-certified with IATA’s CEIV Pharma accreditation, and we are actively preparing ourselves to meet the challenge of shipping temperature- and time-sensitive vaccines across our network when the time arises.”