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By Alex Lennane
Cathay Pacific has been an interesting carrier to watch in the past year. It has parked older freighters and set an example, by its determination to uphold rates in the face of falling traffic. Between January and September it cut capacity by 4.9%, while freight tonne kilometres fell by 9.8%, a move which ultimately saw load factors fall 3.5 percentage points – the worst outcome for any major cargo carrier which cut capacity. But now, in the pre-season ‘peak’ it finally says it is seeing an upsurge in traffic – but it will be nowhere near strong enough to affect the overall results for the year. This is no 2010.
