Cathay Pacific Airways and sister airline Dragonair have announced a year-on-year cargo and mail volume increase of 19.9 per cent to 148,520 tons in June, the Shipping Gazette informs.

The month's cargo and mail load factor stood at 75.4 per cent, up 4.1 percentage points, while capacity increased 19.2 per cent. First half year tonnage grew 24.4 per cent against a capacity increase of 7.1 per cent.

"Demand in June remained high in the build-up to the summer peak, as we continued to restore capacity that was cut in response to the huge downturn in business in 2009" said Cathay general manager for revenue management, Tom Owen.

"We enjoyed increases in volumes and yields compared to the previous year across most routes. We expect strong demand throughout July and August, although we view the sustainability of the current robust revenue trends towards the end of the year with a degree of caution," he said.

Said general manager cargo sales & marketing James Woodrow: "We saw some softening in the market in June compared to previous months and the increase in tonnage was only just ahead of the increase in capacity for the month."

"However, overall demand remained robust out of the key Hong Kong and Shanghai markets, particularly on transpacific routes. The Japan market has also been performing well."

Mr Woodrow added that all of Cathay's freighters parked in the desert had been brought back into service except one Boeing Converted Freighter that will begin operating on its cargo joint venture with Air China in August.

  Source: www.transportweekly.com