Cathay Pacific converting more pax aircraft into 'preighters'

Cathay Pacific is converting more of its passenger aircraft into 'preighters' in response to the ongoing air cargo capacity crunch.

“We were already preparing additional capacity for the peak season. While our passenger network is slowly growing, with an expectation that we will offer around 30% of our normal capacity by Q4, that still leaves a shortfall in vital belly space against anticipated demand for the peak,” the Hong Kong-based airline's general manager, Cargo Commercial, George Edmunds, explained.

“We are addressing these capacity concerns by converting two more of our Boeing 777 passenger aircraft into cargo-only freighters, by removing seats from the Economy Class cabins. These additional aircraft will support our post and general cargo shipments around the Asian region.”

Edmunds continued: “From the outset of the pandemic we have always sought to keep cargo flying, responding quickly to demand by adding cargo-only passenger flights, as well as finding ways to maximise usage of our freighters. Some of the quarantine restrictions were lifted for our vaccinated pilots in April and throughout this time our crew really delivered despite the pressures.”

He added: “We will continue to do all we can to be flexible to keep freight flying and do our bit to help efforts to defeat the pandemic. We were recently able to demonstrate this by rescheduling a freighter from Portland so that it was able to carry - at no cost - a consignment of testing kits for India, and we subsequently shipped much-needed PPE to Bangladesh, again at no cost.”

Edmunds noted that “despite the urgency of these short-term requirements,” Cathay Pacific Cargo  is continuing to make investments for the future as well.

The air cargo carrier is now rolling out its Ultra Track product to 29 gateways across its network, offering multi-dimensional, near-real-time track and trace for time- and temperature-sensitive shipments, and has also made two new cooltainers available in conjunction with its suppliers.

“As ever, while we remain agile as we negotiate the current challenges, we continue to work towards our long-term goal to be the most customer-centric air-cargo service provider.”

Commenting on the broader context and the impact of the difficulties in ocean shipping, Edmunds said: “This is proving to be another year of extreme challenges to the supply chain. The maritime market was just recovering from the disruption caused by the Ever Given incident in the Suez Canal, when an outbreak of COVID-19 in Guangdong Province led to strict quarantine and testing measures on workers at ports and in particular on the truck drivers servicing those ports across the Greater Bay Area.”

He added: “The outbreak has led to disruption and a backlog to global shipping that is bigger than the earlier blockage to the Suez Canal. And while the worst of the port disruption is over, the ripples in the supply chain are likely to be felt for quite a while, and the question of capacity may again come to the fore with more eyes turning to air.”