Cathay Pacific continued to see cargo decline in November as production activities in the Chinese Mainland and trade flows remained constrained.

The airline carried 103,092 tonnes of cargo last month, a decrease of 23.8% compared with November 2021, and a 42.1% decrease compared with the same period in 2019.

This was also lower than its reported cargo performance in October, reaching 109,055 tonnes. In September, cargo volumes reached 104,055 tonnes.

For November, Cathay Pacific said cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 27.8% year-on-year and were down 38% compared with November 2019.

The cargo load factor decreased by 15.6 percentage points to 66.9%, while capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), decreased by 11% year-on-year, and was down by 36.4% versus November 2019.

Increased transport of perishables cited

"On the cargo side, demand remained flat in November compared with the previous month despite it being the start of the traditional peak cargo period. We carried 103,092 tonnes of cargo last month, approximately 6% less than in October, while cargo flight capacity was down about 2% in November compared with the previous month," said Ronald Lam, chief customer, and commercial officer.

He noted that overall, the airline operated about 64% of pre-pandemic capacity levels.

"Production activities in the Chinese Mainland and trade flows remained constrained. While we did witness a mild uptick in e-commerce movements into the Americas around the Black Friday shopping period, a similar surge on regional lanes was more short-lived," Lam added.

The Cathay executive, however, increased demand for perishables transport from South America to Asia, which boosted the airline.

"Conversely, movements of perishable goods from South America, as well as Australia and New Zealand, were relatively active. As such, we operated five non-scheduled services from Darwin, Australia carrying fresh seasonal produce into North Asia to capitalise on this activity," Lam said.

Cathay also refreshed its pharma solutions under a new name "Cathay Pharma" to address the "evolving needs" of the industry.

"This has seen us enhance our customer proposition, making it easier for customers to identify all possible options for pharmaceutical shipments in a more streamlined way," Lam said.

Headwinds to continue in the short term

In the first 11 months of 2022, Cathay Pacific said the tonnage decreased by 12.6% against a 20.7% decrease in capacity and a 30.6% decrease in RFTKs, compared with the same period for 2021.

Moving forward to 2023, the Hong Kong-based carrier signalled that short-term headwinds would persist until production in China stabilizes.

Nonetheless, lifting more pandemic restrictions in Hong Kong is expected to boost cargo capacity and strengthen network connectivity at the Hong Kong aviation hub.

"Regarding cargo, our expanding passenger travel network will provide our cargo customers with more destinations and greater frequencies to choose from as well," Lam said.

"However, we expect headwinds in the air cargo market to continue in the short term until supply chains in the Chinese Mainland become more stable and inventory levels in key consumer markets reduce," he added.

Cathay earlier announced that it targets to operate 65% of its pre-Covid cargo flight capacity by year-end and to return to pre-pandemic capacity by the end of 2024.