Cathay Pacific carries most cargo in a single month since COVID onset
The airline’s overall tonnage grew MoM by more than 5% to 130,997 tonnes.
Cathay Pacific said it carried 130,997 tonnes of cargo for the month of September, which is the most it has carried in a single month since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
In its September 2021 traffic figures, the airline said that the overall tonnage grew month-on-month by more than 5%.
It also operated its freighter fleet at peak capacity through the month as the traditional cargo peak season began.
To further address the demand, Cathay Pacific supplemented its fleet with additional cargo-only passenger flight operations, which saw a 20% rise compared to last month.
Overall, the airline operated approximately 70% of its pre-pandemic cargo capacity when compared to September 2019.
Meanwhile, cargo and mail load factor also saw a 3.8 percentage points increase to 79.7%, whilst capacity measured in available freight tonne-kilometres or AFTKs was up by 16.4% year-on-year but was down 29.6% versus September 2019.
In the first nine months of 2021, the tonnage decreased by 5.5% against a 17.8% drop in capacity and a 7.3% decrease in revenue freight tonne-kilometres or RFTKs, as compared to the same period for 2020.