Cathay Pacific and Dragonair saw cargo volumes increase slightly in January by 0.3 per cent to 147,690 tonnes helped by a pre-Chinese New Year boost, though overcapacity fears continue.

The cargo load factor fell by 1.8 percentage points to 61.6 per cent with available tonne kilometres up four per cent to just under 2.6 billion.

Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales and marketing, Mark Sutch says: “We saw a fall off in airfreight demand after the end-of-year peak and we reduced the number of freighter services operated accordingly. Demand on the key transpacific routes was solid, and we continued to see strong cargo traffic to and from India.”

“The January result was boosted by a surge in shipments towards the end of the month in advance of the Chinese New Year holiday. Rate-cutting as a result of overcapacity continued to put significant pressure on cargo yield.”