Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair released traffic figures for August 2015 showing only a slight increase in the volume of cargo and mail uplifted compared to the same month last year, while passenger numbers grew 8.5 per cent.

The two airlines carried 148,109 tonnes of cargo and mail in August, an increase of 0.8 per cent compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 1.9 percentage points to 60.6 per cent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, rose by 3.5 per cent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) flown increased by 0.4 per cent.

In the year to the end of August, tonnage rose by 6.0 per cent against a capacity increase of 7.8 per cent and a 7.9 per cent rise in RTKs.

Cathay Pacific GM cargo sales & marketing Mark Sutch said: “August is traditionally one of the quieter months for our air cargo business and that proved to be the case last month. We operated more capacity than in August 2014, but the tonnage carried improved only marginally while the load factor fell, highlighting the overall weakness of demand. Looking ahead we expect to see a traditional winter peak.

“In those markets where we face stronger competition and capacity growth, we have the ability to leverage strong network feed over our hub to maintain good loads on our long-haul trunk routes at a sustained yield,” he added.