Weight expectations: how Cathay Cargo fuels global trade

You may not know it, but your flight is vital to help keep the wheels of global trade turning, the supply chain stocked and online shopping orders fulfilled. Below your feet in the hold, alongside your baggage, are tonnes of air cargo. Air cargo is something of a hidden giant. It carries around 35 per cent of global trade by value, but only one per cent by volume. These items tend to be high-value finished products or components to feed manufacturing supply chains. What they have in common is that they are needed urgently. 

Depending on where you’re flying there might be live lobsters, fresh fruit, vital pharmaceuticals, air mail, car parts or the latest fashion down in the hold. For the big stuff – racehorses or helicopters, for example – or when it comes to goods to ply the busy global trade routes where more heft is required, Cathay Pacific operates a fleet of 20 giant Boeing 747 freighters that can carry around 125 tonnes of cargo across the hold and in their cathedral-like main decks.

It’s a big operation. In 2023, despite restrictions that limited passenger flying and quarantine requirements that affected Cathay Cargo’s freighter pilots, Hong Kong retained its status as the world’s busiest air-cargo hub by tonnage, with Cathay Cargo the biggest contributor.

This year, Cathay Pacific Cargo was rebranded to Cathay Cargo, enabling it to take its place alongside the overall Cathay master brand. As part of this, its first marketing campaign, “We Know How”, was launched on 21 June at Hong Kong International Airport in an engineering hangar. The first Boeing 747 freighter to receive the new livery acted as both backdrop and venue: its main deck, decorated and fitted with a temporary floor and filled with refreshments, hosted 300 guests, including dignitaries, Cathay Cargo customers, employees and the media.

Director Cargo Tom Owen told guests that along with investments in training, new technology and a revamped range of specialist solutions for looking after various high-value cargoes, the time was right to back the Cargo brand financially too. 

“We can’t rest on our laurels,” he said. “We need to fight to keep our number one status. This is why we are investing in our Cargo brand, so that we can play our part in maintaining Hong Kong’s premier global status. Our success goes hand-in-hand with this great city.”

The We Know How campaign focuses on the expertise and experience of Cathay Cargo’s staff, backed by new and exciting digital technologies – plus that extra bit of “magic” that its freighters and shipments evoke, as General Manager, Brand, Insights and Marketing Communications for Cathay Pacific Edward Bell explains. “Despite the extraordinary range of goods that we ship, they are all shipments that matter,” he said. “That’s why every Cathay Cargo freighter is not just delivering goods; it is delivering possibility.”

This forms the basis of Cathay Cargo’s first video and poster campaign, which is based around a sneak peek inside a Cathay Cargo freighter and looks more closely at the shipments that matter to the world. “Every Cathay Cargo freighter is an amazing thing,” Bell concludes. “One wonders what kinds of wonderful, delicious, precious items lie contained behind the curved walls.” It’s time to find out.

Learn more about Cathay Cargo