Dragonair boosts freight revenue 43pc

Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) flew more than 4,000 tonnes of air freight in October, a record and a 33 per cent increase compared with the corresponding month last year.

The airline carried 31,959 tonnes of cargo between January and October, boosting revenue by 43.3 per cent, the airline said yesterday.

Dragonair's chief executive officer Stanley Hui Hon-chung attributed the surge in freight to the creation of an in-house cargo sales department in July.

This immediately led to a 21 per cent increase in air freight through a dedicated sales, booking and freight space control operation.

'This is a result of our efforts to better service our customers by establishing an in-house cargo sales department earlier this year,' Mr Hui said.

'We'll continue to work on providing comprehensive service to cater to customers' growing needs.' Using these latest figures as a guide, Dragonair expected to earn 6 per cent extra revenue from its air freight operations than previously forecast.