Hactl stays bullish on cargo volumes
June 30, 2011 Category Airlines and airports, Logistics
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) said its tonnage throughput for the year would likely end only about 5% below a “bumper” 2010, despite a heavy fall in cargo volume in the past two months. Air cargo throughput was also expected to fall year-on-year this month, Managing Director Mark Whitehead said, although he expected a strong turnaround during the second half of the year would mitigate the impact. Hong Kong’s largest cargo handler processed 227,050 tons of cargo in May, down 12% from a year ago. In April the year-on-year decrease was 9.3%. While Hactl handled more than 70% of the total air cargo that went through the city’s airport, Whitehead, who has been in the top job for nine months, said that his priorities were to maintain the company’s edge and keep its clientele amid competition from both Cathay Pacific and mainland airports. Hactl stands to lose 45% of the three million tons of cargo it handles a year when its biggest client Cathay Pacific/Dragonair moves to its own cargo terminal that will open in early 2013. The first phase of the terminal could handle an annual tonnage of 2.6 million, which will eventually rise to 4 million tons upon completion of its second phase. That is almost equal to the total cargo volume handled by the airport today. Whitehead said Hactl was still studying ways to redeploy the surplus capacity that would emerge, including leasing some of the extra space to freight forwarders for cargo storage. Five new airlines have joined Hactl this year, compared with 14 for the whole of last year. With tough competition ahead, Whitehead called for faster progress towards building a third runway at Chek Lap Kok to avoid the airport losing its status as Asia’s cargo hub. The Hong Kong Airport Authority expected demand on cargo traffic to reach 5.6 million tons a year by 2020, but with a third runway it could go up to 7.2 million tons in 2025 and 8.9 million tons in 2030, the South China Morning Post reports.
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