Cathay, Hong Kong top global air cargo league tables

HONG Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways is one of the star performers of Asia-Pacific carriers and its home airport, now ranks as world's busiest freight airport in 2010.

Last year the carrier's cargo traffic rose 23 per cent to 10.2 million ton-kilometres compared to its competitor Korean Air Lines' volume of 9.7 million ton-kilometres.

To deal with growing cargo volumes, Cathay Pacific will increase capacity by eight per cent in 2011, reports Bloomberg. Six of ten 747-8 freighters on order from Boeing has been delayed until second half of the year when the order is expected following maintenance issues.

Cathay Pacific is to begin a Shanghai-based air cargo venture with Air China, which according to IATA was the world's biggest airline by market capitalisation at US$20 billion, and gain access to Shanghai and Beijing hubs. It also plans to build a dedicated freight terminal at Hong Kong airport.

HKIA beat off competitor Memphis International Airport, the busiest cargo airport since 1992, in annual turnover of 4.1 million tons, a 23 per cent increase year on year. The FedEx primary hub in Memphis saw an increase of 5.9 per cent to 3.9 million tons in 2010.

The airport benefits from the booming export and production business in neighbouring Pearl River Delta. The region has proven attractive to US-based global package companies like FedEx and UPS, the former has its largest hub outside of the US at Guangzhou Baiyun airport and UPS hub in Shenzhen Baoan airport.