Cathay Pacific and Dragonair’s cargo and mail volumes grew 4.6 per cent in November helped by strong exports and more ocean-to-air conversions.

The two airlines carried 167,520 tonnes of cargo and mail in November, and the load factor rose by 1.1 percentage points to 68.1 per cent. Capacity in available tonne kilometres was down 1.9 per cent to 1.4 billion and revenue tonne kilometres dipped 0.2 per cent to 964.4 million.

Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales & marketing, Mark Sutch says exports were strong due to new products from China and Hong Kong and special products from Northeast Asia and the Americas, and yields have been improving.

The airline has also been introducing new routes, Sutch says: “In November, we introduced our twice-weekly freighter service to Portland, Oregon to support the growing export demand of a range of commodities from the Pacific Northwest of the US to Asia.”

“We also launched a once-per-week freighter service to Brisbane West Wellcamp for carrying fresh produce and machineries in and out of the Southeast Queensland region.”