Strong June not enough to offset sluggish 2016 for Cathay

A strong June, in which Cathay Pacific Airlines reported cargo volume up 7.1 percent, year-over-year, was not sufficient to offset sluggish business in the previous five months of 2016, during which time revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) fell 2.3 percent.

Cathay’s cargo load factor rose by 1.6 percentage points to 64.3 in June. However, the carrier also announced this week that tonnage carried fell by 0.3 percent against a 0.6 percent increase in capacity and a 2.3 percent decline in RTKs for the first six months.

The airline’s Chief Executive, Ivan Chu, explained the lackluster results by pointing out that “performance over the first six months of 2016 has been below expectations. Passenger revenue has been adversely affected by the reduced load factor and intense pressure on yield.  Cargo tonnage has stabilized, but yield continues to decline. Foreign currency movements have also been adverse.”

Cathay Pacific’s available cargo/mail tonne kilometer count rose 2.1 percent in June compared to a year earlier, to 1.36 billion ATKs. Over the first half of 2016, the increase was smaller, rising 0.6 percent to just over 8 billion ATKs. The figure for last month, compared to June 2015, was up 2.6 percent to 2.5 billion ATKs and up 2.3 percent to 14.93 billion ATKs for the first half of the year.