World air freight shakes off disasters and unrest with April growth

Worldwide air freight achieved solid growth in April despite the knock-on effects from thenatural disasters in Japan in March and continuing impact of unrest in North Africa and the Middle

Worldwide air freight markets grew by 3.3% in April, up from 1.3% in March, figures coveringboth international and domestic air freight showed. On international air freight markets theimprovement was larger, with volume growth accelerating from 2.8% in March to 5.4% in April. Thefigures include positive comparison effects with April 2010 when European airspace was closed forseveral days due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

Over the first four months of 2011, worldwide air freight traffic grew 2.7%, with internationaltraffic up 4.3% but domestic down 7.6%, as measured in freight-tonne-kilometres.

Even with the improvement the April growth rates are a substantial deceleration from the marketgrowth seen last year, IATA pointed out. Moreover, although world trade has been expanding at anannualised rate of 10%, air freight markets have shrunk by 6% compared to their post recession peakin May 2010, it added.

Load factors, which stood at 46.5% for April, have dropped by some 4 percentage points comparedto last May’s peak. This is reversing the strong boost to profitability that freight delivered in2010, the international airline association commented. International load factors averaged 51.9% inApril. This was also a downward trend.

However, more positively, there were signs in April that air freight may be starting to benefitfrom the trade flows associated with the recent rise in business spending on capital goods andstrong consumer spending in the emerging economies, IATA said.

In regional terms, freight on African carriers contracted by 5.8% in April due to the aftermathof the political unrest in the region. Middle East airlines, however, generated a strong 21.2% risein air freight traffic.

Asia-Pacific carriers also saw a contraction, but by a smaller 2.5%, due to disruptions in thesupply chains for autos and electronics in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake andtsunami.

By contrast, European airlines are starting to benefit from the improvement in internationaltrade and air freight that is supporting economic growth in some of the core European economies.The 12.9% year-on-year growth for international freight recorded in April is a positive sign,albeit skewed by the volcanic ash disruptions of the previous year.

Airlines in North America suffered a slight drop of 0.4% in April while Latin American carriersincreased air freight traffic by 5.6%.