The two airlines carried 122,920 tonnes of cargo and mail in July, a drop of 1.9 percent year over year. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 4.4 percentage points to 60.3 percent. Capacity, measured in cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 6.6 percent while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers were down by 0.7 percent.

For the year to date, tonnage has fallen by 1.8 percent compared to a 0.6 percent capacity decline.

“Demand was soft out of many of the major airfreight markets last month and once again, we saw tonnage and load factor dropping compared to 2012, when business was already weak,” Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager cargo sales & marketing, said. “The bright spots in our network were the transpacific lanes and demand on intra-Asia routes, particular out of Hanoi and Dhaka. Europe and Japan remain two of the weaker markets at the moment.”