Cathay Pacific Airways today released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for September 2016 that show an increase in both the amount of cargo and mail uplifted and number of passengers carried, compared to the same month last year.

The two airlines carried 162,116 tonnes of cargo and mail in September, an increase of 7.1 per cent compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.6 percentage points to 65.0 per cent.

Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, increased by 2.2 per cent, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 6.3 per cent. In the first nine months of 2016, the tonnage carried rose by 1.9 per cent against a 0.5 per cent increase in capacity and it was flat in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales & marketing Mark Sutch said: “Overall cargo demand in September was fairly strong and tonnage continued to grow. Exports from Europe, Asia and Mainland China all saw good growth, while demand for freight on our North America routes was robust.

“The last week of the month, prior to the long national holiday in Mainland China, saw us break the company’s weekly uplift tonnage record. Although yield is down from the same period in 2015, we plan to maximise our freighter schedule over the last quarter as we expect demand to strengthen during the traditional peak season.”

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,672,694 passengers last month – an increase of 1.5 per cent compared to September 2015. The passenger load factor dropped by 0.6 percentage point to 83.3 per cent, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 2.6 per cent. In the first nine months of 2016, the number of passengers carried rose by 1.8 per cent compared to a 3.3 per cent increase in capacity.