Q: When did COVID-19 first begin to affect the industry, and what has been the extent of the impact?
A: It started from around the end of January, when the air cargo industry was stable but seasonally slack because of Chinese New Year. Since the lockdown of various countries and suspension of passenger flights in late February, available cargo capacity reduced dramatically as the belly space in passenger contributes around 40 per cent of air cargo’s capacity. That has consequences. On request by a customer, I approached the Cathay Cargo team for an ad-hoc price enquiry to Asia. The quote was much higher than the usual price.