Cathay Pacific Cargo Haul, Not Passengers, Helps Win Hearts
- Air freight accounts for 22% of the carrier’s total revenue
- Jefferies expects a 5.2% gain in Cathay’s cargo yield in 2017
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It took about nine months for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. to win its first buy rating from an analyst. When the upgrade came, it was because of the airline’s cargo operations, not its five-star-rated passenger business.
Jefferies Group LLC raised the rating on Cathay’s stock to buy this month, citing signs of a pullback in capacity expansion and improved outlook for global cargo demand and yields. That’s a good start for the marquee brand, which said in May it would cut 600 jobs as part of the biggest revamp in two decades following the carrier’s first full-year loss since 2008.