Cape
Town – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released
figures for air freight markets in April which showed modest growth
of 1.4% compared to April 2012. This small increase helped to offset
the 2.6% decline recorded in March compared to the year-ago period.
And it continues an 18-month trend of basically no growth in the
cargo markets.
“We
saw a brief rally in cargo markets at the end of 2012. But that has
clearly stalled. Fortunately, the small improvement in April means
that economic conditions have not deteriorated to the point of
starting a market contraction. And if we look to emerging
markets--particularly Latin America and the Middle East—we do see
some encouraging signs of growth,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s
Director General and CEO.|
Apr
2013 vs. Apr 2012 |
FTK Growth |
AFTK
Growth |
FLF |
|
International |
1.2% |
1.2% |
49.0 |
|
Domestic |
2.9% |
1.8% |
28.7 |
|
Total
Market |
1.4% |
1.3% |
44.7 |
|
YTD 2013
vs. YTD 2012 |
FTK Growth |
AFTK
Growth |
FLF |
|
International |
-1.0% |
-0.3% |
48.7 |
|
Domestic |
2.0% |
0.8% |
28.7 |
|
Total
Market |
-0.6% |
-0.1% |
44.3 |
Regional Performance
Growth in emerging markets was strong enough to counterbalance weaknesses in the major aviation regions, but overall growth remains feeble.
- Asia-Pacific carriers saw a 0.4% fall in freight compared to April 2012. Although Chinese economic growth is still robust, overall business confidence softened in April, indicating a sluggish manufacturing sector. The outlook for Japan, by contrast, is more optimistic. Export growth drove Japanese business confidence to a 13-month high in April, but the impact hasn’t yet affected freight growth.
- North American airlines saw air freight volumes fall 0.1% in April compared to the previous year. Although this is a contraction, it is an improvement on the 6.5% fall in March, suggesting that markets have broadly stabilized.
- European carriers saw an increase in air freight demand of just 0.9%. Regional business confidence levels trail those in both the US and emerging markets. Nevertheless, European air freight volumes are holding up better than other regions when compared to the previous year.
- Middle East airlines saw their freight business expand at a healthy 8.6% compared to April 2012. While this is a slowdown from the year-to-date growth rate of 11.2%, it was still the second highest of any region and the opening of new routes to developing economies will drive growth for the foreseeable future.
- Latin American airlines experienced the highest growth in demand with a 12.2% expansion compared to the year-ago levels. This is more than three times the year-to-date growth, and is the result of strong domestic demand as well as a sustained growth in exports of perishable goods.
- African airlines
saw air freight demand grow by 1.4% compared to April 2012, in line
with the global result. During previous months, however, African
airlines’ air freight demand has performed more strongly than the
global market, reflecting robust expansion in regional trade volumes
compared to the world trend.
