Cathay Pacific cautious but optimistic on cargo following strong 2024
Thursday, March 13, 2025
athay Cargo saw cargo revenues, volumes and yields increase last year, although the company is “cautiously monitoring” the impact of geopolitical developments.
The freighter operator saw cargo revenues increase 8.3% last year to HK$24bn on the back of a 10.9% increase in cargo volumes to 1.5m tonnes and a 5% improvement in revenue freight tonne km to 8.5bn (RFTK).
The company said that the improvement in cargo demand was in part down to additional belly space provided by increased passenger flying – overall cargo capacity in available freight tonne km (AFTK) increased 8.6%.
The demand increase also reflects a strong cargo market last year as the sector benefitted from rising e-commerce demand and modal shift due to the Red Sea crisis. IATA said that the overall market increased by 11.3% year on year in 2024.
Yields improved by 2.9% thanks to rising airfreight rates and the cargo load factor slipped by 2.1 percentage points to 59.9% as ACTK growth exceeded that of RFTK.
Cathay Pacific chief executive Ronald Lam described the airline’s cargo performance as “strong last year”
Looking ahead, the company was positive for the cargo market over the coming 12 months, although it was monitoring geopolitical developments.
“For Cathay Cargo, given the global geopolitical situation, we are cautiously monitoring any short-term impacts on air cargo demand,” said Lam. “Nevertheless, we remain confident in the competitiveness of our air cargo business, bolstered by the opportunities presented by the Three-Runway System and the strength and flexibility of our business model.”
In terms of aircraft, the Cathay Cargo freighter fleet remained at 20; 14 Boeing 747-8Fs and six 747-400ERFs. Air Hong Kong’s freighter fleet was down one in terms of numbers, but it has added larger aircraft.
At the end of 2024, its fleet stood at 15 freighters: 10 A330-300P2Fs, two A330-243Fs, and three A300-600Fs. In 2023, it operated seven A300s and seven A330-300s, along with the two A330-243Fs.
Regional performance
Drilling into regional performance, the airline group said that cargo demand out of Hong Kong and Greater Bay area remained strong buoyed by e-commerce and traditional commodities, particularly electronics.
“The cargo volume handled at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Logistics Park in Dongguan experienced substantial growth, especially in exports, while import volumes began at a lower level and gradually increased,” it added.
For the Americas, Cathay said it ramped up freighter frequency on transpacific routes from late August to cater for the growing demand during the air cargo peak season and strong growth in the amount of mail carried, particularly from the US and Canada with key destinations being South Korea and Japan.
Overall demand from Europe “surged” as the airline group reported increased tonnage to the Chinese Mainland, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Pacific, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“General cargo has been the backbone in driving the tonnage growth from the Europe region in 2024,” Cathay said. “Perishables and pharmaceutical products continued to drive growth in our special cargo tonnage, with perishables mainly from the UK and France, and pharmaceutical products mainly from Belgium to Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Northeast Asia.”
Overall tonnage from North Asia grew year on year partly driven by busy trade flows within the region, Cathay said.
“We saw improvement in cargo traffic from North Asia to North America where high-tech and auto-parts were among the key commodities. Machinery movements within Japan, Korea and the Taiwan region were busy and drove the growth of our Cathay Expert solution from North Asia.
“E-commerce from the Chinese Mainland to long-haul destinations such as the Americas and Europe remained strong, supplemented with e-commerce trade between South Korea and the Taiwan region leveraging belly capacity on the Cathay Group’s increased passenger flights.”
The group added that exports from Southeast Asia were “solid”, both on regional and long-haul routes.
“General cargo remained the dominant commodity from Southeast Asia, with high-tech electronics the most common,” it said. “In terms of special cargo, perishables and live seafood to Hong Kong, as well as machinery movements from Malaysia to the Chinese Mainland and the Taiwan region, and from Singapore to Hong Kong also contributed to tonnage growth for Southeast Asia.”