In a period of some uncertainty, it’s great to have some good news. I am thrilled to share that Cathay Cargo has regained its position as Cargo Operator of the Year at Air Transport World’s (ATW) 51st annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone across Cathay Cargo and our supporting teams, such as our pilots and engineering teams, who keep our cargo flights safe and efficient and the freight flowing across our network. It is terrific to get industry recognition about what we’re trying to achieve. It gives us confidence and renews our motivation to continue to improve and make Cathay Cargo better.

Read more: Celebrating our double victory at the ATW Airline Industry Achievement Awards

The market picture and a commitment to safety

We have had a reasonable start to the year, but we’re acutely mindful of the headwinds in global trade and other uncertainties that are beyond our control. Our main focus is on adjusting our schedules and frequencies, and refocusing our sales efforts as necessary to make the most of the opportunities for Cathay Cargo – this is tapping into the agility we learned as a team during COVID. Additionally, our global sales teams are improving their use of data to target freight coming into and through the Hong Kong hub, and to discover opportunities to open up new lanes and offer new solutions. We’ve have great people around the world with a very strong reputation and a brand that will help us thrive in uncertainty. 

Our leading operational risk remains the undeclared carriage of lithium batteries on the main decks of our freighters. We continue to work with Hong Kong’s aviation authorities and our local trade partners to make sure that we mitigate any risk of misdeclarations. We take a zero-tolerance approach and, as some recent events have shown in the market, we will make no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safe carriage of our cargo.

Read more: How Cathay Cargo flies lithium-ion battery shipments to the highest possible safety standards

Awarding our partners, welcoming our customers

As you read this, we have just hosted more than 80 customers in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, held for the first time in the city’s new stadium. This was preceded by the annual Cargo Business Update where we shared Cathay Cargo’s progress thus far with our guests. Among our team at the stadium were two of our key business partners – ULD management contractor Unilode and GHA Menzies Aviation Australia. Both of them were notable winners in the Annual Supplier Awards, run by the Cathay Procurement team. We’re delighted they could join us for what was a really memorable occasion.

Our special solution strength

In a testing time for the market, it’s great to see the continued growth in tonnage of shipments using our special solutions. Below, we look at the Cathay Fresh solution, in this instance, mapping the flows of fresh salmon carriage across our network from all points of the globe to markets where this high-grade perishable graces tables as quality sashimi. This will be the first in a series of pieces about the perishables market, and our role in delivering fresh products to markets across the world.

Read more: Our global salmon shipment network using Cathay Fresh

We also refreshed our Cathay Expert solution last year, and have now just updated our protocols for ultra-heavy shipments. A new piece of digitalisation has reduced the decision time on whether we can accept any outsized shipment to just three hours – 24/7. Nobody takes lightly the expense of shipping something so heavy by air, but there’s a genuine need because the costs of not having a jet engine on a wing, or vital mining equipment out of service can outstrip the airfreight charges by many multiples. This efficient and speedy reaction time to our customers’ requests, along with all of our specialist solutions, help set us apart from other carriers. 

Read more: Bringing digital efficiency and safety to our heavy shipment processes

All change but safe hands for global partnerships

Finally, we look at some of the changes to our senior Commercial teams. We bid farewell to Chris Bowden, our previous Head of Cargo Global Partnerships, who has accomplished a lot in building up our Global partnerships throughout his tenure. We have an excellent replacement for Chris in Siddhant Iyer, who will already be known to many of you. You can read their “handover” interview below, and I would like to extend my appreciation to Chris for all of his hard and effective work. Later in the summer, Toby Griffiths, currently with Swire Shipping, will also be joining us to take over Siddhant’s previous role, bringing with him good all-round commercial knowledge.

Read more: Handing over the Global Partnerships role

I hope you can see there is a palpable sense of excitement in and around Cathay Cargo as to what the year will bring. And I’d like to thank all of you, as customers, partners and supporters in helping us continue to improve and develop our solutions and services. Our singular aspiration is to become the world’s best air cargo carrier. In this regard, we will keep on striving to improve ourselves in the eyes of our customers, our employees and all our other stakeholders.