Cathay Cargo is looking forward to growing its capacity with Airbus A350 freighters as well as developing its perishables business.
The Hong Kong-based cargo arm of Cathay Pacific benefits from ample belly capacity in its fleet, with more passenger aircraft due to arrive this year, but has more limited freighter capacity. Of 179 own-controlled aircraft in total, 20 are freighters, all Boeing 747Fs.
Therefore, the additional capacity from the six A350Fs ordered from Airbus in December 2023, alongside rights for 20 more units, will provide vital support on busy routes out of Hong Kong, explains James Evans, general manager, Cargo Commercial Cathay Cargo.
“We’ve got huge capacity in our bellies, but we’ve only got 20 freighters,” points out Evans.
The A350F was a logical choice for Cathay. The carrier already has 47 A350s of the passenger type.
The arrival of the A350Fs will be a welcome step up in terms of modernisation.
Cathay’s six 747-400ERFs are all owned and have an average age of 14.5 years, while its 747-8Fs have an average age of 10.4 years.
The 747-400s will be nearing 20 years of age when deliveries of the A350Fs, already pushed back, are due to start.
The A350Fs will offer a payload capacity of up to 111 tonnes and a range of 4,700 nautical miles, as well as up to 40% lower fuel burn and CO₂ emissions compared to older in-service freighters.
However, Cathay’s first freighter variant won’t be delivered until at least 2028, with deliveries due to continue through 2029.
“In terms of our freighter capacity, we’ve got a steady state, or a pinch from now until deliveries begin,” says Evans.
While there has been speculation about a widebody cargo capacity shortage stemming from supply chain parts shortages, feedstock shortages for conversions and delays to new generation aircraft entering the market, Cathay has no current plans to lease freighters ahead of the A350F’s entry into market.
But the airline hasn’t completely ruled out adding capacity as a stopgap, should the need arise, says Evans.
“We’d always be on the lookout for opportunities like that, but right now, our focus is on getting ready for the A350 freighters.
“We’re always keeping a close eye on how the market is changing. But ACMI rates have been quite high and our focus is very much on optimising the capacity and network we’ve got.”
He adds: “We are looking at the 2030 horizon now as part of the next five-year plan, and obviously those A350Fs are a big part of that, and they are a growth aircraft. And then we’ll need to see how we can plan our capacity needs into the next decade.”
Strong GBA demand
Cathay is well used to efficiently managing capacity. Six years ago, operations were curtailed by government-imposed pandemic lockdown and quarantine restrictions that severely restricted passenger flights and belly capacity.
“Passenger capacity was down to 2% for quite some time. Our freighters were the workhorses, and we were operating cargo-only passenger flights,” recalls Evans.
In the following years, the airline has gone from strength to strength.
Cathay Cargo’s 2025 volumes were up 9.4% year on year as it benefited from solid demand for specialist cargo handling throughout the year, as well as a stronger than expected peak season.
According to Evans, Cathay Cargo is seeing healthy demand out of its home hub at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG).
The airport is a regional transhipment hub and air logistics gateway to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and strong production and export demand will see Cathay’s home market continue to grow, says Evans.
“There are huge volumes and business out of the Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong sits at the heart of that,” says Evans.
Cathay Cargo is well positioned to benefit as its current passenger and freighter fleet gives it between 25% to 30% of the total capacity share out of Hong Kong.
The airline also benefits from Hong Kong’s role as a transit hub for air cargo out of Southeast Asia, which is seeing increased production and strong air cargo capacity demand.
“There has been double-digit growth out of Southeast Asia and we’ve been beneficiaries of that as well,” says Evans.
Demand out of Hong Kong, the GBA and Southeast Asia combined has helped Cathay maintain high freighter load factors to the Americas, including Mexico.
“Our capacity to the Americas has held pretty consistent,” confirms Evans.
He points out that air cargo demand can quickly move from area to area, so agility is needed but Cathay is always prepared to shift its capacity.
“With planes, you’re lucky that you can redeploy to where the capacity is needed. You need to be able to be in a position to pivot and adjust.”
For example, Hanoi capacity was increased in the fourth quarter and flights to Madrid also took place during the peak season.
But, says Evans: “We will continue to operate the vast majority of our freighter capacity into the Americas. We operate anywhere between 33 to 38 flights a week and sometimes increase that in the peak season.
“We also look at how we can optimise the fleet and complement flights with more network support feeding on to those lanes.”
The stability of capacity to the US is an interesting topic, given the reduced e-commerce demand on the transpacific trade lane last year after the US decision to end the de minimis exemption.
Speaking about the initial reduction in e-commerce volumes from Asia to the US, Evans says that while Cathay did “have a hit on the Americas lane”, as an airline Cathay saw plenty of business on its Asia-Europe and Asia-Middle East routes and was able to move capacity accordingly.
He adds: “E-commerce doesn’t only go to North America, it goes to the Middle East and Europe. We’ve seen growth in e-commerce as a result of where platforms are trying to grow their businesses.”
Moreover, Asia-US e-commerce trade has now largely recovered, and e-commerce is just one commodity within a wide range of goods transported by Cathay Cargo.
Cathay Cargo’s fresh service will continue to be developed to grow perishables business supported by the Air-Land Fresh Lane, opened last year, to improve the efficiency of moving goods across the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge (HZMB).
In fact, Cathay was the first airline to utilise the lane, developed by the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong SAR to facilitate the efficient cross-border movement of perishable goods.
The initiative allows fruit and live or chilled seafood arriving at HKG to be transported seamlessly into the GBA via temperature-controlled trucks equipped with GPS tracking and accredited e-locks, all under a single air waybill.
Fresh is one vertical in particular where Cathay Cargo is confident there will be volume growth.
“We see the air-land, fresh lane out of Hong Kong into the GBA as a great opportunity. The GBA is a big consumption market,” Evans says.
“We’re very bullish on those opportunities and glad that we’ve hit these milestones with working with the key stakeholders, including Hong Kong Airport.”
Last September, Cathay completed trial shipments of live lobsters and geoducks, a type of shellfish.
Alongside this, Cathay is refining terminal handling, trucking and logistics integration, cross-border arrangements and end-to-end documentation.
It is also building intermodal network capacity through trucking into and out of the GBA.
This year, Evans says: “The Hong Kong, GBA home market is really important. Building on these trials and growing intermodal connectivity into and out of the GBA is a big focus for us.”
Cathy Cargo has also seen “significant tonnage growth in expert and pharma” and will continue to look at those opportunities, says Evans.
Digitalisation propels growth
Digitalisation will also be essential to support the development of intermodal services for fresh products, as well as other specialist business.
Last month was the implementation deadline for IATA’s ONE Record, designed to make shipment information relevant to stakeholders visible and accessible before, during and after the transport process.
In December 2024, Cathay Cargo became the first carrier to adopt the IATA ONE Record data protocol in some of its operations with forwarders.
The forwarders started exchanging electronic air waybill (eAWB) and shipment status information with Cathay Cargo using an application programme interface (API) designed to ONE Record data protocols.
Then, in January 2025, Sinotrans Hong Kong Air Transportation Development became the first Hong Kong forwarder to submit eAWB information and was able to review shipment information from Cathay Cargo using ONE Record data protocols.
In October last year, Cathay Cargo also began using the IATA ONE Record data protocol to offer real-time customs clearance updates for customers, another first for the industry and an important step in reducing reliance on manual ground handling updates and minimising congestion.
The service enables customs status updates from authorities, including Europe (ICS2 Import Control System), the US, Canada and UAE.
Initially, the service was available to Cathay Cargo customers subscribed to the EzyCargo platform or those with ONE Record API links, but it is being rolled out for other customers this year.
Overall, Evans is confident in its capacity offering and business growth in 2026.
“I remain positive for next year, partly because of the scale of the capacity we have and the location and our ability to pivot quite quickly, and the indicators from our big customers about what BSA (block space agreement) levels they they’re looking at,” he says.
“Cathay Cargo’s carrying capacity is going to grow in the 5-7% range. So not the same steep growth curve that we’ve seen in previous years as we came out of the pandemic, but there’s still good capacity growth. That’s mainly through the passenger bellies.
“That gives us lots of network opportunities to feed on, and so we’re really looking at optimising our capacity.
