Cathay Pacific sees strong 4Q2012 for freight, dip in demand in opening weeks of 2013

Cathay Pacific GM cargo sales and marketing James Woodrow, in the Jan/Feb-2013 edition of CXWorld, stated (Feb-2013) "after a reasonably strong final quarter in 2012, we saw a dip in demand in the opening weeks of 2013". He continued: "We didn't get the expected pre-Chinese New Year rush. The current expectation is that it will continue to be a challenging year for airfreight operators". He continued: "From the CX side, the biggest concern is demand from Asia to Europe and we will carefully manage our capacity in this trade lane. Out of Europe the team has been doing a good job of pushing up yield and selling special products, and we expect that to continue North America will remain a bright spot and having 10 Boeing 747-8Fs operating on these routes by July will give us a big advantage in terms of increased payload and reduced fuel burn". In Asia, Mr Woodrow explained: "Three Cs" - Chongqing, Chengdu and Zhengzhou (CGO) - recently overtook Shanghai as our biggest Mainland market and will play an increasingly important role in our growth ex-China this year. The stalling economy in Japan will continue to present challenges in the short-term. Southeast Asia will be boosted by our additional passenger capacity in the region and we expect Vietnam in particularly to be a good growth story". He also noted that its latest freighter destination, Colombo, has received a good response from the market and the opening of the Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal is an important development. [more - original PR]