The strong worldwide recovery in air freight volumes dropped back in July, according to thelatest monthly figures from airports association ACI.
Freight tonnage at the world’s leading cargo airports grew 17.9% in the month, leaving volumesfrom January – July 2010 up by 23.1%. The rolling 12-month figure, covering August 2009 to July2010, showed a 15.1% rise.
The figures represent a slowdown in the strong air freight recovery that has been seen over thelast year, with the first monthly growth rate of less than 20% since last November, the associationstated.
International freight remained strong in July, with a 23.3% increase. This was a 29.7% rise overthe first seven months of 2010 and an 18.4% rise over the 12-month period since August 2009.Domestic freight tonnage rose worldwide by just 7.6% in July, as compared to the January throughJuly increase of 11%.
All world regions performed well in July, the ACI figures showed. Europe led the way with 20.8%overall freight growth, followed by Asia Pacific (19.4%), Latin America/Caribbean (18.4%), NorthAmerica (15%) and the Middle East and Africa (both 14.4%). International freight growth was higherthan overall growth in all regions, while domestic volumes grew only at single-digit rates.
ACI Director Economics, Andreas Schimm, said growth in the freight sector is likely to havepeaked in the second quarter and, given the freight upturn that started late last year, there willprobably be a return to more usual, single-digit growth rates in the fourth quarter of 2010.
“That being said, 2010 so far has beaten expectations and the recovery is well on track.Regional differences remain, however, and may become even more pronounced as the development ofeconomies in the USA and Europe appear increasingly uncertain and show a tendency to slow downagain,” he added.
