Dragonair sees Cargo Volumes Climb 57% in March 2005

Dragonair cargo volumes surged in March as factories in the Mainland ramped up production following the Lunar New Year holidays, while the Easter holidays provided a boost to passenger numbers.

“As expected, cargo saw a rebound in March following the Lunar New Year holiday period in February,” said Dragonair CEO Stanley Hui. “The amount of freight we carried jumped 57.3% month-on-month to 34,012 tonnes.

Double-digit growth was also recorded on a year-on-year basis, with the airline carrying 23.7% more cargo than in March 2004.

“This was due to a number of factors, including increased freight capacity in our fleet and the addition of new destinations to our all-cargo network in the last 12 months,” Mr. Hui explained.

For the first quarter as a whole, the amount of cargo carried jumped 22% compared with the same period last year.

“It has been a very good quarter for both cargo and passengers, with both posting double-digit-gains.”

Passenger numbers rose 16.4% in the quarter. They also posted a rise in March, up 7.4% on February and 16% on March last year.

“More than 400,000 passengers flew with Dragonair in March,” Mr Hui noted. “Business traffic to both Beijing and Shanghai was strong during the month. Elsewhere in our network we saw a rise in leisure travel, especially to Bangkok, as people made the most of the Easter holidays.”

See other recent news regarding: Cargo, Dragonair, Travel News Asia