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CATHAY Pacific and wholly-owned subsidiary Dragonair carried a total of 122,551 tonnes of cargo in January, slightly less than the same month a year ago.
The combined cargo load factor for the two airlines was 62.2 per cent, down 0.2 percentage points year on year, a company statement said.
"It was a slow start for cargo in January as the market took time to regain its momentum after the Christmas and New Year period. Chinese New Year falls much later this year and that also explains the relatively low loads. There is a lot more capacity in the market, and Hong Kong is facing challenges from airports in the Pearl River Delta region, but we remain committed to growing our network and investing in our home hub," said Cathay cargo general manager Ron Mathison
"In mid-January, Cathay Pacific took delivery of its fourth 747-400 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF), while Dragonair received its second 747-400 BCF this month," he said.
With regard to passenger numbers in January, the two airlines together transported 1,734,103 travellers, down 3.5 per cent compared with the combined figure for the same month last year.
Cathay Pacific is operating an additional 78 pairs of flights to 10 regional destinations, primarily Sapporo, Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei and Bangkok during the Chinese New Year period. Dragonair is operating a total of 46 additional pairs of flights, including charter services to Taipei, Kaoshiung, Kota Kinabalu, Phuket and Guilin.
This comes as Dragonair has been steadily expanding its services since the integration with Cathay Pacific. The carrier launched a thrice-weekly service to Busan on January 19 and resumed daily service to Phuket at the end of 2006. It also increased the number of flights to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from five times a week to daily earlier this month.
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