Cathay Cargo's Tom Owen to move on to HAECO

Tom Owen

Tom Owen, director cargo for Cathay Pacific, is to move on to another Swire Group company at the end of the year. 

After five years heading Cathay Cargo, he will become group director of corporate development at maintenance company HAECO. 

Dominic Perret, currently regional general manager southeast Asia for the airline, will take on Mr Owen’s role, marking his first foray into Cathay Cargo after 15 consecutive years at the carrier. Prior to that he spent two years as general manager West Africa for Swire Pacific Offshore, after beginning his career at Cathay Pacific. 

Dominic Perret

Mr Owen said: “It goes without saying that I will miss all the colleagues at Cathay Cargo and also the industry friends with whom I have worked over the past years, and I thank everyone for making my time in the air cargo industry so special. It’s been a privilege to be part of the successes Cathay Cargo has achieved in recent years and we will have many more to come in the future!” 

Writing in Cathay Cargo’s customer magazine, Mr Owen also noted that he hoped the market uncertainty would soon be resolved. 

“The temporary pause in [the] tariff situation has helped stabilise our commercial performance over the past few weeks. The expectation is that we will learn more on decisions around the global trade situation in terms of reciprocal global tariffs on 9 July for the region, and about Chinese Mainland tariffs in August.  

“These will hopefully set a new baseline for future demand and remove some of the uncertainty we experienced at the start of the year. The teams have done a fantastic job adapting to this change – using our network to fill gaps in tonnage, redeploying capacity to take advantage of areas where the markets are still strong and using data to uncover new opportunities. Previously, opportunities were hard to come by due to strong loads out of Hong Kong. Credit to our teams around the world, particularly in Southeast and Northeast Asia, for responding with such agility.”