HONG KONG's Cathay Pacific and its affiliate Dragonair, have registered a year-on-year decline in cargo and mail carried in February owing to a drop attributed to the Chinese New Year slow-down.

    Last month the carriers combined transported 116,998 tonnes of air freight, representing a decrease of 2.3 per cent compared to February 2009, on a capacity increase of 17.8 per cent at 978.2 million available cargo and mail tonne kilometres, and a 3.3 per cent rise in the number of cargo and mail tonne kilometres flown at 661.253 million.

    Last month's cargo and mail load factor was down 9.5 percentage points to 67.6 per cent.

    Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing James Woodrow said in a company statement: "Demand out of the key Hong Kong and China markets was generally quite weak during and immediately after the Chinese New Year holidays in early February, with a number of factories in the mainland staying closed for a longer period than usual. We saw some pick-up later in the month though there was no significant month-end rush. We managed our capacity in line with demand, cancelling a number of freighter services on long-haul trunk routes."

    The combined number of passengers carried in February amounted to 2.04 million, down 1.2 per cent year on year, on a capacity increase of 8.9 per cent at 9.52 billion available seat kilometres.

(Source:http://www.schednet.com)