Over the summer, Cathay Pacific anticipates a more competitive air cargo market and will increase the number of freighter flights it operates to North America.
Lavinia Lau, the company's chief customer and commercial officer, announced that additional freighter flights to Toronto and Miami would be added over the summer. She noted that while the summer months are typically slower, no significant increase in demand is anticipated until the third quarter's end. "As overall cargo demand falls short of supply, we also expect increasingly fierce competition. "We will continue to identify new demand as we rebuild our capacity through the growth of the widebody passenger network and adjust the timetables of our freighters as necessary. "As a result, Toronto and Miami will have more freighter capacity."
As it begins to resume passenger and cargo operations after lockdowns in Hong Kong last year, the carrier reports improvements in cargo volumes.
The airline did issue a warning, noting that the overall cargo market was still flat and that cargo traffic was outpacing the market's capacity growth. According to Lau, the market volume was basically unchanged in May. "High inventory levels contributed to the persistent underperformance of high-tech demand and new consumer goods shipments.
However, the e-commerce sector remained largely active, and as passenger services returned, aircraft engine volumes increased in the special solution segment.
As a result of capacity expansion, the carrier saw cargo tonne kilometres in May rise 73.4% year over year to 654 million.
India’s booming air cargo market has registered a 13.5 per cent
surge in outgoing volumes since 2011, although coupled with a “dismal
yield” fall of 20 per cent in US$, says research house WorldACD.
The Netherlands-based consultancy, which uses primary data from the
airlines themselves, said that India’s yield change looked a lot better
in local currency Rupees, with a six per cent increase.
Incoming volume slipped slightly, but incoming yields fell considerably less than the worldwide average.
The UK, Germany and the UAE together take 25 per cent of all traffic
from India, while Hong Kong, Germany and China account for around 40 per
cent of all air cargo into India, states WorldACD.
The biggest growth sectors ex-India are live animal shipments (+243
per cent), perishables (+83 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (+67 per
cent). Perishables boosted its share of the total from 12 per cent to 19
per cent, while pharma grew its share from six per cent to nine per
cent.
“Whereas the bulk of the pharma goes to North America (Europe is
second, Africa third), the best perishables and live animals destination
is Middle East & South Asia (MESA). Incoming traffic shows similar
growth figures for the three categories mentioned.
“Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai count for 70 per cent of India’s outgoing
cargo. The fastest growing cities in general are Hyderabad and Kochi.
Bangalore and Hyderabad show the highest growth in pharmaceuticals.”
According to WorldACD, Middle East airlines profit most from India’s
growth, followed by airlines from Europe. Asia Pacific-based carriers
are losing market share, particularly in the markets from India to
Europe.
WorldACD says that forwarder sector shows “great volatility” in the Indian market.
“Among the large forwarders, growth figures of 40 per cent and above
are just as normal as big declines in market share. Expeditors,
Panalpina, GAC Logistics and Damco are growing fast, mostly at the
expense of regional forwarders, but certainly also hurting a number of
the world’s largest "
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