Cathay Pacific Cargo took a beating across the board, with chairman John Slosar warning that, “we expect the operating environment in the second half of the year to continue to be impacted by the same adverse factors as in the first half. The overall business outlook therefore remains challenging.”
The carrier described the current climate as economically fragile and intensely competitive in its preliminary report. The Hong Kong-based carrier reported cargo revenues for the first six months of 2016 to be US$1.21 billion, a decrease of 17.2 percent over to the same period in 2015.
Cargo capacity for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair rose by a modest 0.6 percent in the first half, but the carrier’s load factor was still impacted, decreasing by 1.9 percentage points, to 62.2 percent. Total volume fell 0.2 percent to 866,000 tonnes. While the overall market was weak during throughout the first half, the carrier noted that tonnage stabilized in the second quarter.
Yield fell by 17.6 percent, year-over-year, which the report attributed to “strong competition, overcapacity and the suspension (from April) of fuel surcharges.” European routes continued to exhibit weak demand, and demand on transpacific routes softened as well.
Shipments from Hong Kong and mainland China to North America, which account for the majority of the carrier’s volume, were reduced from 37 flights per week in the first half of 2015 to 33 weekly flights in the first half of 2016.
India was a rare bright spot. Pharmaceutical products and mail (the yield on which is above average) were also areas of growth, showing increases of 80 percent and 11 percent respectively.
Source: aircargoworld