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Asian air cargo carriers experience muted peak season demand in November

AIR freight carriers in Asia produced mixed results in November amid weak demand and capacity additions, with all but one reporting declining load factors.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair carried a combined 160,120 tonnes of cargo and mail in November, a decrease of three per cent compared to the same month last year.

The cargo and mail load factor fell by 1.4 percentage points to 67 per cent, and capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, dropped by 1.2 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown fell by 3.2 per cent.

"Yield fell short of expected peak-season levels due to an excess of capacity in the market," said Cathay cargo chief Mark Sutch. "On the positive side, we saw good demand on transpacific routes, which remains our key area of strength, and also into and out of India."

Taiwan's Eva Air posted the biggest decline in November, after freight tonne kilometres (FTK) fell 19.2 per cent to 295 million on a capacity reduction of 11.3 per cent with load factor at 80.1 per cent against 87.8 per cent last year.

Year-on-year demand declines were also recorded at China Airlines (-1.5 per cent) and China Eastern (-0.3 per cent). Both carriers added capacity during the month that meant that load factors were down on a year ago for both airlines.

However, declines were not registered at China Southern, Air China and SIA Cargo in November.

Demand at China Southern rose 18.4 per cent compared to November last year to 591 million revenue freight tonne kilometres. The airline attributed the growth to utilising its growing bellyhold capacity.

China Southern also stressed targeting international mail and fresh goods, which benefited from the growth of cross-border e-commerce, and through the addition of four Boeing 777 freighters.

Capacity in November was up 16.9 per cent and the airline registered an improved load factor of 57.6 per cent.

Demand at Air China grew by 4.2 per cent to 570 million revenue freight tonne kilometres on a capacity increase of 7.4 per cent, pushing its load factor down to 56.6 per cent.

SIA recorded a 5.4 per cent increase in demand to 606 million freight tonne kilometres. Capacity was up 7.3 per cent, while its load factor slid to 66.1 per cent.