Cathay Pacific has reported a 32% rise in cargo revenue to HK$32.4 billion ($4.2 billion) in 2021 on the back of better yields and increased load factors.
According to Cathay’s annual report released on Wednesday, the airline’s load factor increased by 8.1% points to 81.4%.
Cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTK) dropped by more than one percent and capacity, measured by available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTK), declined 11%. However, the airline’s total revenue declined slightly for the period to HK$42.2 billion ($5.5 billion), and adjusted loss for shareholders declined to HK$4.5 billion ($585 million) from HK$15.2 billion ($2 billion).
“Cargo demand grew ahead of the traditional peak season in the second half of the year," Patrick Healy, chairman of Cathay Pacific Group told STAT Times.
“In the months leading up to the end of 2021, we operated our freighter fleet at peak capacity, and supplemented our cargo capacity with additional cargo-only passenger flight operations. (Using passenger flight slots for cargo flights.)
“We also operated six of our Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft that have been partially converted into ‘preighters’ by removing some of the seats in the passenger cabins to provide additional cargo-carrying capacity,” he said.
“In October, we carried more than 136 000 tonnes of cargo, the most we have carried in a single month since the start of Covid-19. Our airlines have carried more than 190 million Covid-19 vaccines.”
He said Cathay Pacific Cargo had drastically reduced flights during the first quarter of 2022 following the emergence of the Omicron variant. The Hong Kong government had tightened the quarantine requirements for aircrew operating cargo flights, and temporarily banned all flights from nine countries, including the UK and the US, which are major markets for the airline.
“Passengers from high-risk places were banned from transiting through Hong Kong International Airport. All this constrained our ability to operate flights as planned. Our cargo flight capacity is likely to remain at less than one-third of pre-Covid-19 levels while current restrictions remain in place. We are trying our best to maintain our passenger and cargo networks as far as possible and will try to increase our cargo capacity as much as practicable,” he said.
At the end of 2021, Cathay Pacific had 193 aircraft, after taking delivery of six new aircraft, and HK Express took delivery of one new aircraft in 2021.
"Given current conditions, approximately 37% of our passenger aircraft are parked in locations outside of Hong Kong in keeping with prudent operational and asset-management considerations,” said Healy.
