Cathay Cargo has joined Cargolux in cancelling its plans to restart freighter operations to the Middle East region following renewed fighting between the US and Iran.
In a statement issued today, the Hong Kong-hubbed carrier said that in view of the latest developments in the Middle East, it had taken the decision to postpone the resumption of its passenger and freighter services to the region.
“The resumption of Cathay Cargo’s freighter service to Riyadh will be postponed from the originally planned 1 August,” the airline said. “Cathay Cargo will review the timing for resuming the service.”
The airline added that it would “continue to monitor the evolving situation in the Middle East”.
Cathay announced in early July that it planned to restart its freighter operations to the region with flights to Riyadh.
The airline initially suspended operations to the Middle East back in March due to the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict.
Cathay Cargo is not the only freighter airline to announce the cancellation of plans to restart services to the region.
Cargolux has also put plans to restart freighter services to Dubai World Central (DWC) on hold until further notice.
Cargolux initially suspended operations to the Middle East in early March following the outbreak of fighting.
Services to Muscat have continued, but the airline’s flights to Kuwait, Dammam, Bahrain, Riyadh and Doha remain suspended.
The development comes as the US-Iran conflict has ramped up in recent days.
A ceasefire between the US and Iran collapsed on 8 July when Iran allegedly attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Since then, the two countries have been trading waves of airstrikes and missile attacks.
Despite the resumption of fighting, cargo capacity into the region has continued to recover in July.
Data from consultant Rotate shows that cargo capacity in the first four days of this week from the Middle East to Europe is 10% higher than in the same four days at the end of June.
Meanwhile, capacity from Asia to the Middle East has increased by 5% when comparing the same two periods.
