Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific sees little chance of an upswing in air cargo into 2014 and will again focus on attracting greater volume and balancing supply with demand, reported the airline's CX World magazine.
"We did see an upsurge in the last quarter, but the peak started late and only lasted about six weeks. 2013 was another tough year and revenue was behind budget by double digits," said Cathay cargo chief Mark Sutch.
The company is expecting another mini-peak in the build-up to the Chinese New Year holiday, but said demand will fall away quickly afterwards. February will be slow while there are hopes that March may be buoyed by new product launches.
"There's not much visibility beyond that, so our strategy will be similar to last year - chasing the cargo, maximising yield through our suite of special products, and matching supply with demand," Mr Sutch said.
This year the company also plans to take a closer look at emerging markets, including Africa, and will strengthen new destinations such as Mexico.
"With Europe continuing to be affected by weak trading conditions and over-capacity, we need to focus on winning on the transpacific routes, which are inextricably linked with China."
Mr Sutch said another focus will be on intra-Asia traffic, where the carrier is able to make use of a strong passenger network to feed freight in long-haul flights.
"We'll be looking closely at Vietnam, which is set to grow further as a centre for hi-tech manufacturing."
He added: "It's all down to being able to balance yield and load factor, and that will continue to be a challenge this year."
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