Cathay Pacific's cargo business continued to grow in July, driven by increased perishables shipments and a surge in e-commerce demand.

The Hong Kong flag carrier transported 126,797 tonnes of cargo last month,  an increase of 9.6% compared with July 2023.

This figure was also higher month-on-month when Cathay handled 124,568 tonnes of cargo in June. This is also more cargo handled compared to 121,088 tonnes in May and 117,428 tonnes of cargo transported in April.

"Cargo demand remained strong in July with healthy year-on-year tonnage growth. Across our network, our tonnage was 2% higher than in June and 10% above July last year. Given July is traditionally a softer month for demand, this was encouraging and bodes well for August," said Lavinia Lau, chief customer and commercial officer.

In terms of commodity mix, Lau noted an uptick in perishable goods shipments from Southeast Asia and the South West Pacific into Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland and increased tonnage through Cathay Expert services using dedicated freighters for project shipments and outsized cargo.

"E-commerce shipments continued to be the main driver of volumes from the Greater Bay Area," she added.

For July, cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) decreased 0.5% year on year. Meanwhile, the cargo load factor decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 58.3%, while available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs) increased by 2.1% year on year.

Lau said the carrier continues to enhance its special solutions, and in July, Cathay re-launched Cathay Courier with a focus on digitalisation to add greater transparency and reassurance for customers when they choose to send their urgent shipments with Cathay Cargo.

"Customers will now be able to track their shipments online. Along with this newly added feature, Cathay Courier provides our customers with speed, guaranteed capacity and dedicated handling for their time-sensitive, high-value shipments," she added.

Cathay said in the first seven months of 2024, the tonnage increased by 10.3% to a total of 846,261 tonnes, against a 9.9% increase in AFTKs and a 3.8% increase in RFTKs, as compared with the same period for 2023.

Strong cargo peak expected

Looking ahead, the Cathay chief customer and commercial officer said cargo growth is seen to continue through the traditional peak season months.   

"Concerning cargo, we expect that demand will remain at healthy levels as we head towards what we anticipate will be a strong peak from September until the year-end," Lau said.

"We will be increasing our freighter frequencies on transpacific routes and making full use of our long-haul passenger belly services to cater for customers' requirements," she added.