The Hindu Business Line : Cathay Pacific to double India freight capacity

The airline now operates thrice a week freighter services into Mumbai and onward to Paris, with Boeing 747-200 freighters. It also operates a thrice-a-week service to Delhi and further to London Heathrow with B747-400F.

The capacity expansion will be focused on Mumbai where it will deploy the larger capacity B747-400 freighter aircraft. Frequencies to and from Mumbai will be stepped up to 12 weekly flights from three.

From June, the expansion programme will see the introduction of a weekly turnaround service between Mumbai and Hong Kong with a B747-200F.

On the Hong Kong-Mumbai-Paris sector, the airline will add a fourth service with a B747-400F.

In addition, it is proposed to introduce a four-times-a-week service from August on the Paris-Mumbai-Hong Kong sector with the larger capacity B747-400F.

"The additional services with the higher capacity B747-400F will result in a 330 per cent increase in tonnage to and from Mumbai and a 233 per cent increase on an all-India basis," said Mr Rupert Bray, Country Manager, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

According to Mr Bray, cargo was an important revenue earner for the airline, and accounted for about 30 per cent of total revenues.

While the airline was now expanding its cargo capacity, which was governed by liberal operational guidelines, the expansion of passenger services, he said, was constrained by the bilateral agreement between the two governments.

Mr James Barrington, Director, Sales & Marketing, Cathay Pacific, said India and China were the two growth markets that the airline would look to expand passenger services.

The Indian operations were profitable and passenger loads on the sector were in excess of 70 per cent.