Cathay Pacific Airways grew its cargo tonnage and freight figures in October compared to the same month in 2016.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried 180,706 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 4.8 per cent compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 1.2 percentage points to 69.3 per cent.

Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 2.4 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 4.2 per cent. In the first ten months of 2017, the tonnage rose by 10.8 per cent against a 3.1 per cent increase in capacity and an 8.7 per cent increase in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific director of commercial and cargo, Ronald Lam says: “Our cargo business enjoyed a strong month and we broke our weekly tonnage uplift record during the week ending 21 October. Stepping into the traditional peak period, demand for new IT products and perishables was robust.

“We deployed additional freighter capacity on transpacific, India and mainland China routes, while our load factor and yields continued to climb. October also marked an important milestone for our Pharma LIFT business – along with our wholly-owned subsidiaries Cathay Pacific Services Limited and Hong Kong Airport Services Limited, the airline was awarded CEIV Pharma Certification in recognition of our capability in handling high value and time-sensitive pharmaceutical products.”