This year began positively for Cathay Cargo. Even though the longer than usual Lunar New Year holiday softened the market in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland in February, our other regions performed well, highlighting the importance of our strong network. Since the end of February, events in the Middle East and the unprecedented surge in the price of aviation fuel have brought challenge and volatility to our industry. During this time, Cathay Cargo has been absolutely focused on our priorities: ensuring the safety of our operations and protecting our network and schedule as much as we can.

For safety reasons, we have cancelled our passenger services to Dubai and Riyadh until the end of May and our freighter services to those destinations until further notice. Five of our eight weekly freighter services to Europe that previously stopped in Dubai (DWC) are now flying direct, resulting in a payload limitation. We are currently reviewing alternative mid-points with the aim of removing this restriction.

The surge in the price of jet fuel is placing considerable pressure on airlines around the world and I would like to elaborate on the impact that it is having on Cathay Cargo.

The jet fuel our aircraft use is made by refining crude oil, and so its price comprises both the crude oil component and the refinery component, both of which have increased significantly in recent weeks.

According to data published by IATA, the global average jet fuel price increased to US$197.00 per barrel for the week ending 20 March 2026, increasing from US$95.95 per barrel for the week ending 20 February 2026. Breaking this down for the week ending 20 March 2026, crude oil increased to US$110.78 per barrel while the refinery component increased to US$86.22 per barrel. For the week ending 20 February 2026, the refinery component was US$24.48 per barrel. This illustrates the sharp rise in the overall price of jet fuel in just one month.

Fuel accounted for approximately 30 per cent of Cathay Pacific’s total operating costs in 2025. Like many airlines, Cathay undertakes fuel hedging to manage price volatility. However, in 2026 our hedging covers only around 30 per cent of the crude oil component and does not apply to the refinery component, making this measure insufficient given the scale of the recent surge in the price of jet fuel.

Fuel surcharges are another important mechanism to mitigate and recover a portion of our incremental fuel costs. Like many airlines around the world, we have had to increase fuel surcharges in response to the price increase in jet fuel.

Cathay Cargo is determined to maintain our capacity as far as is practicable despite the escalating jet fuel price. We know how important this is to our customers and the Hong Kong international aviation hub – the world’s busiest cargo airport.

We will continue to communicate and work with our partners as we navigate through these unprecedented and challenging times for our industry.

Three intermodal routes to the GBA

We have long viewed the Greater Bay Area as a major global production centre and a vital source of the outbound freight Cathay Cargo carries from Hong Kong. The nine Guangdong municipalities and population of 79 million people are also an increasingly important consumer market – and that have a lot of potential. After lately introducing the Air-Land Fresh Lane for carrying perishable imports into the GBA via Zhuhai, we are now wrapping up successful trials of an air-sea route that takes perishables into the region via the HKIA Dongguan Logistics Park. Combined with our three-times-daily flights to Guangzhou and our existing trucking services, we are delighted to give our customers another way to access this growing market.

Read more: Cathay Cargo launches third intermodal link with the GBA for perishable imports 

Welcome industry recognition

We are thrilled to learn recently that Cathay Cargo won the “World’s Best Airline Branded Cargo Operations” category at the Airline Ratings’ Airline Excellence Awards 2026. The award recognises the consistency, reliability of our cargo operations and our “commitment to cargo as a core business rather than a supplementary activity”. While we are adapting to the latest market turbulence, this recognition from within our own industry fuels our determination to become the world’s best air cargo carrier, no matter the external challenges we are facing.

Read more: Cathay Cargo wins Airline Ratings’ world’s best branded cargo award

80 years of We Know How

To mark our 80th anniversary, we look at our progression through innovation. We look back at some of the ways we handled bookings and cargo, from visiting the Cathay Pacific office in the Peninsula Hotel and loading by hand, through to our online presences and receiving load plans on an app. 

Read more: Technology and innovation