Sister carriers Cathay Pacific and Dragonair this week revealed that cargo and mail tonnagefell significantly during May.
The two Hong Kong-based airlines carried 123,403 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, a drop of 10.6% on May 2011.
The cargo and mail load factor was down by 5.9 percentage points to 62.3%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne km, decreased by 7.3%, while cargo and mail tonne km flown dropped by 15.3%.
So far this year tonnage has declined by 10.7%, against a capacity drop of 4.1%.
Weak demand also resulted in the final demise of Jade Cargo, the troubled Chinese joint-venture carrier established by Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo and German financial institute DEG.
Its fleet of six freighters was grounded in January. All Asia-Pacific carriers have suffered from falling demand by US and European consumers for Asian manufactured goods.
In February, the shareholders – Shenzhen Airlines (51%), Lufthansa Cargo (25%) and DEG (24%) – attempted a restructuring deal with Shenzhen-based UniTop Group, which failed.
Source IFW
