As we all are aware, the market continues to be very volatile, with ongoing capacity pressures arising from the situation in the Middle East and the high price of jet fuel. We have pushed back the resumption of our passenger flights to Riyadh and Dubai until the end of June, and our freighter services to those destinations remain suspended. You might have also seen that Cathay Pacific is reducing its passenger flight frequencies by around two per cent, mainly on regional flights, in response to the volatility of fuel price driven by rising crude oil and refinery costs.

Our now fortnightly cadence to our fuel surcharge mechanism means that we more closely track the price of jet fuel. As a result, in mid-April, while still extremely high, the price of SINJET fuel – which itself is significantly higher than the price of crude due to increased refinery costs – saw a slight drop in comparison to what we saw in late March. This has been reflected in our most recent fuel surcharge announcement, showing a slight decrease for the first period of May.

Demand remains robust, and load factors on our transpacific and European lanes have held up well, although there will be some softening from Golden Week in early May. We have also been able to arrange some alternative mid-points in India in place of Dubai for our European freighters, which has helped recover capacity on the Asia-Europe lane. Additionally, to support growth in South East Asia, we’ve added a freighter to Bangkok tagged with Ho Chi Minh City, which will free up another 40 tonnes of capacity from Hanoi.

If peace and stability were to return to the Middle East, as we hope, we believe the air cargo market and jet fuel prices will remain volatile for a while longer. Our fuel surcharge cadence will remain fortnightly for the foreseeable future to reflect this uncertainty. As ever, we will monitor the situation and do all we can to protect our network, capacity and, of course, our Hong Kong hub.

We have had some welcome positive news about our home hub. Hong Kong was confirmed as the world’s busiest air cargo airport for the 15th time in 16 years. The 2025 rankings by the Airports Council International recorded 5.07 million tonnes of cargo throughput, of which Cathay Cargo contributed the largest share at 1.68 million tonnes. This milestone has been achieved thanks to the sophistication and quality of the air cargo community in Hong Kong – and their continued investment in infrastructure, expertise and efficiency – twinned with the geographic advantage of being a gateway to the manufacturing powerhouse of the Greater Bay Area.

Delivering for mail customers

In today’s changing landscape for global trade, airline carriers are increasingly required to provide Customs with advance shipment information and facilitate the collection of tariffs. In some cases, achieving this quickly was a hard ask for the postal industry. We take a look at Cathay Mail, our postal solution, and how we have worked towards increased visibility of air mail shipments, and examine how this approach can help to further streamline processes with the world’s post offices.

Read more: Cathay Mail is modernising the mail shipment process

New functionality for bookings

In terms of our own modernisation, we’re well on the way to making www.cathaycargo.com a one-stop-shop for our customers, which we have done with customer feedback leading our priorities and decision making. The ability to manage and modify bookings has been top of the wish list for some time, and we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to roll out the new Manage Booking feature across the network in response to those requests.

Read more: New functionality for modifying Cathay Cargo bookings

Cargo Business Update and sporting success

It was great to welcome so many of our customer and supplier partners to our annual Cargo Business Update and a weekend of rugby at the 50th Hong Kong Sevens. In our 80th anniversary year, we hosted the update at the Peninsula Hotel, the iconic Hong Kong property that once housed the first Cathay Pacific Airways ticket office. We had an insightful session looking at the current market situation and wider industry trends before an enjoyable weekend of sporting excellence and Hong Kong at its best.

Read more: Cathay Cargo hosts the Cargo Business Update ahead of Hong Kong Sevens

The Anchorage engineers who keep our freighters flying

In the third story from our series spotlighting our Anchorage hub, we take a look at the vital role our Engineering team plays in keeping transpacific freighter operations running – whatever the weather. Whether they are dealing with ad hoc emergency repairs out on the windswept ramp or fixing known defects during turnarounds, they are an essential link in our logistical supply chain.

Read more: Engineering success in Anchorage

80 years of the Hong Kong Hub

As part of our anniversary celebrations, we take a look at how our Hong Kong home base operations have evolved, moved and evolved again as we continue to work towards a successful future in the world’s busiest air cargo hub.

Read more: The Hong Kong Hub