China’s air cargo volume fell 0.4 per cent year-on-year to 2.66m tonnes in the first half of 2011, according to statistics from the Civil Administration of China.

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary Dragonair posted a year-on-year drop of 9.1 per cent in cargo and mail carried in June to 134,980 tonnes, contributing to an overall decline of 14.1 per cent over the first half of the year.

Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres was up by 6.3 per cent in June and 14.6 per cent in the first six months of the year.

“We saw continued weakness out of our key mainland China and Hong Kong markets in June, but this is traditionally a quieter time of year in the airfreight industry,” said Cathay’s cargo sales manager James Woodrow.

China’s civil aviation industry completed Rmb19.3bn of fixed-asset investment in the first half of 2011, 13.5 per cent more than in the same period last year. There were 16 new airports under construction as of the end of June.