Cathay Pacific Cargo said it is converting two more of its Boeing 777 passenger aircraft into cargo-only freighters to support the airline's post and general cargo shipments in Asia. 

George Edmunds, GM Cargo Commercial, noted that 2021 is proving to be "another year of extreme challenges to the supply chain" — and with all the recent disruptions in the shipping sector, all eyes are turning to air transport for capacity.

"The maritime market was just recovering from the disruption caused by the Ever Given incident in the Suez Canal, when an outbreak of Covid-19 in Guangdong Province led to strict quarantine and testing measures on workers at ports and in particular on the truck drivers servicing those ports across the Greater Bay Area," Edmunds said.

"The outbreak has led to disruption and a backlog to global shipping that is bigger than the earlier blockage to the Suez Canal. And while the worst of the port disruption is over, the ripples in the supply chain are likely to be felt for quite a while, and the question of capacity may again come to the fore with more eyes turning to air," he added.

"We are addressing these capacity concerns by converting two more of our Boeing 777 passenger aircraft into cargo-only freighters, by removing seats from the economy class cabins."

The Cathay Cargo executive noted that the airline is "already preparing additional capacity for the peak season."

"While our passenger network is slowly growing, with an expectation that we will offer around 30% of our normal capacity by Q4, that still leaves a shortfall in vital belly space against anticipated demand for the peak," Edmunds said, noting that since the outset of the pandemic the airline have always sought to keep cargo flying — responding quickly to demand by adding cargo-only passenger flights, as well as finding ways to maximise usage of its freighters.

"We will continue to do all we can to be flexible to keep freight flying and do our bit to help efforts to defeat the pandemic. We were recently able to demonstrate this by rescheduling a freighter from Portland so that it was able to carry – at no cost – a consignment of testing kits for India, and we subsequently shipped much-needed PPE to Bangladesh, again at no cost," Edmunds said.

Launch of Ultra Track 

Despite the urgency of these short-term requirements related to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cathay Pacific noted that it is also continuing to make investments for the future like its recent roll-out of Ultra Track — a multi-dimensional, near-real-time track and trace for time- and temperature-sensitive shipments now rolling out to 29 ports across its network.

"As ever, while we remain agile as we negotiate the current challenges, we continue to work towards our long-term goal to be the most customer-centric air-cargo service provider," Edmunds said.