We have been able to strengthen our intermodal connectivity with the Greater Bay Area with updated cargo-friendly options by air, land and sea. And with the focus on perishable imports on all of them, we are delighted that Macao has been added as a new second option on the Air-Land Fresh Lane. You can read more below. In the overall market and despite some uncertainty air cargo seems to be returning to something close to normal; global capacity is nearly back to pre-event levels and we were able to record year-on-year growth in April.

There are still some lingering capacity issues. Our passenger and freighter flights to Dubai and Riyadh remain suspended, and while we have found new mid points for most of our Europe-bound freighters in India, our capacity is still affected. South East Asia remains a real positive for us and our new freighter service to Bangkok has been well received.

The big issue remains the price of oil, and jet fuel in particular. The fortnightly cadence to the fuel surcharge mechanism means that we are continuing to closely track the price of jet fuel and this responsiveness has enabled some reductions in the surcharge, but fuel costs overall remain elevated. We remain focused on protecting both our hub and our global network as we ship cargo that matters to the world.

More links to the Greater Bay Area

That includes premium fresh produce imports to the GBA, which is one of our strategic focuses for this this giant consumer market. I’m delighted to announce that the Air-Land Fresh Lane initiative has extended to Macao alongside the existing entry point at Zhuhai. While at just 680,000 the population of Macao is dwarfed by the overall GBA population of 80 million, it has more than 40 five-star hotels and highly regarded restaurants. It was perhaps not a surprise that our first shipment to use this route was a consignment of live lobsters.

Read more: Cathay Cargo debuts Air-Land Fresh Lane to Macao with live lobsters

Cathay Cargo hosts seminar on ONE Record with IATA

Innovation was on full display at our Cathay City headquarters in April. We were delighted to welcome an audience of air cargo industry representatives to a ONE Record Seminar organised by IATA, ahead of its weekend-long Hackathon. The seminar was a great opportunity to learn how this digital data standard is reshaping the industry, with our own digital team among those sharing key milestones and achievements. Teams from across the industry then put principle into practice during the IATA Hackathon, devising new potential uses for ONE Record’s API technology.

Read more: Cathay Cargo hosts ONE Record seminar and Hackathon

Cathay Pharma ready to adapt to market trends

Our team recently attended LogiPharma in Vienna, making it a good opportunity to take a look at the pharma industry and track some of the trends in this crucial sector since the relaunch of our Cathay Pharma solution a couple of years ago. These include developments in passive packaging, moves towards door-to-door delivery of therapies in the US, and the Chinese Mainland becoming a net exporter. Our Cathay Pharma solution has the quality to adapt to new trends in the market. And with sustainability a crucial differentiator for the pharma industry, we were delighted to welcome one of our packaging suppliers, Envirotainer, to our Corporate SAF Programme recently.

Read more: Trends and developments reshaping pharma logistics

80 years of Cathay Cargo shipments

We take a look at some of the extraordinary shipments we’ve carried over our 80 years of operation, and how our shipment solutions for special cargo have developed over time.

Read more: Solutions and shipments