Cathay Cargo’s tonnage climbed 9 percent in February versus January as flights returned, with demand gradually recovering following the Lunar New Year holidays.

The airline carried 103,932 tonnes of cargo in February, an increase of 59.6 percent compared with the same month last year, when Cathay’s capacity was significantly reduced due to stricter aircrew quarantine measures.

The carrier’s cargo revenue tonne kilometres (RFTKs) for February increased 153.9 percent year on year. Cargo load factor fell 13.7 percentage points to 66.7 percent , whilst capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometres (AFTKs), grew 206.1 percent YoY.

“Inbound demand from the Americas, Europe, Northeast Asia and Southwest Pacific remained steady, especially across our special solutions, such as Cathay Fresh and Cathay Pharma,” commented Lavinia Lau, customer and commercial chief for Cathay Pacific.

“Ad-hoc demand from Southeast Asia as well as South Asia, the Middle East and Africa (SAMEA) also helped fill the gaps left by demand from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland on long-haul routes,” Lau noted.

The airline saw a number of new developments in February, including the rebranding of the airline’s cargo unit to Cathay Cargo and the pilot of a multimodal logistics service that will allow seamless sea-air shipments from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) into HKIA for outbound airfreight.

The airline said it is progressively expanding its network alongside the resumption of passenger flights, citing increasing demand from Hong Kong and China on the back of e-commerce-related traffic. The airline expects to operate around half of its pre-pandemic capacity by the end of March.