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Four Asian airlines, including Cathay, suffer declines in March cargo demand

ASIA'S largest cargo carrier Cathay Pacific saw demand fall 4.1 per cent year on year in March to 891 million cargo and mail revenue tonne kms, the London's Air Cargo News reported.

Cathay cargo chief Mark Sutch said market conditions were tough, but there were bright spots.

"Following a generally weak February, we saw some improvement in air freight demand in March," he said. "This was helped by the shipment of new consumer IT products out of the major manufacturing cities of western China.

"There was a pickup in traffic on key transpacific routes, and we mounted a number of additional flights into India in response to continued robust demand. Overall, however, the air cargo markets remain soft and yield remains under pressure in what is a highly competitive environment."

While demand slipped during the month, cargo capacity at the airline group climbed by 4.1 per cent and as a result its load factor slipped from 68.4 per cent during March last year to 63 per cent this year.

During the first quarter, Cathay registered a demand decrease of 4.8 per cent on a year ago, although the 2015 figures would have been boosted by the US west coast port strike that saw cargo switch from sea to air freight.

Three of the region's cargo carriers, China Southern, Air China and Singapore Airlines, saw a slight improvement in their fortunes in March with cargo demand increasing over the same month last year.

The airline that possibly had the best March was China Southern as it saw demand jump by 21 per cent on a year earlier to 518 million revenue freight tonne kilometres (RFTK).

The airline also managed to increase its cargo load factor for March from 48 per cent to 50.3 per cent as capacity increased by the lower amount of 15.6 per cent on a year earlier. In the first quarter, demand is up 13.6 per cent compared with a year ago.

Air China and Singapore Cargo were the other airlines that managed to register a demand increase in March.

Air China saw March cargo demand increase by 5.6 per cent on a year earlier to 587 million RFTK after registering a decrease in February. For the first quarter demand was up 1.9 per cent compared with a year earlier.

Singapore Airlines was the other carrier to register an increase in cargo traffic. SIA Cargo saw demand increase by 1.2 per cent on a year earlier to 594 million freight tonne kilometres (FTK). For the first quarter, demand was two per cent up on a year earlier.

The airline which registered the largest cargo demand decline in March was Eva Air which registered a 15.2 per cent slide to 295 metres FTK.