News / Cathay Cargo bullish on demand, despite 2023 earnings collapse

Cathay Pacific said this week it had “finally left Covid behind” last year, and despite the return of belly capacity bringing a cargo earnings collapse, claimed to be upbeat.

Revenue for Cathay Cargo over 2024 dropped 17.9%, year on year, to HK$22.1m (US$2.82m) as the resumption of passenger services brought a 59.7% increase in available tonne km and a drop in revenue per tonne km of 48.5%.

Despite this, at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium this week, the Cathay team appeared “quite pleased” with the performance.

This is likely in part due to the boost in 2023 volumes and revenue tonne km 40.3% ahead of its 2022 numbers. Tonnage was up 19.7%, to 1,381,000 tonnes, and there are suggestions of a strong performance in certain key sectors over the course of this year.

For example, Cathay Cargo said: “We anticipate strong demand from e-commerce in our home market of Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area.”

But it added: “However, we expect trade flow directional imbalances to persist, impacting overall load factors. Moreover, as the air cargo industry continues to normalise, yields will decrease, but they are expected to remain above 2019 levels.”

Confidence in local markets has seemingly been driven by what the carrier described as “particularly robust” demand from southern China’s e-commerce sector during the Q4 peak.

And there was “robust” and “notable” growth in the neighbouring north and south-east Asian markets, with Cathay’s longhaul services from North Asia to Europe and the Americas faring strongly over the 12 months to December.

Blips were recorded on its South Asia, Middle East & Africa segment, seeing reduced frequencies to Dhaka, Delhi and Chennai, and Cathay also discontinued its Bengaluru freighter service.

The airline used the results announcement to note that it had become the first carrier to have its cargo shipments accepted at the new Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Logistics Park in Dongguan.

Servicing sea-air transhipments, the facility allows cargo to be screened, built up and accepted for flights away from the airport, before being trucked to HKIA.

Having opened for imports in December, the sea-air transhipment scheme will fully migrate to the facility at some point in 2025.