Airports around the world suffered a 1.9% drop in air freight volumes in May and have only lowgrowth for 2011 so far, according to the latest monthly figures from the Airports Council
International association.The latest figures continue the slower growth trend seen over the last 12 months after thepost-financial crisis recovery peaked last spring. Most world regions, including the major marketsof Asia Pacific and North America, have seen slowdowns although Europe is proving relativelyrobust, ACI figures show.
In May, total air freight was down 1.9% in tonnage terms, with international freight 2.8% lowerand domestic volumes falling by a slight 0.4%, ACI’s FreightFlash survey of leading cargo airportsshowed. Over the first five months of 2011, world air freight tonnage grew by 3.1%, withinternational volumes up 3.6% and domestic 1.6% higher.
ACI World’s Economics Director Andreas Schimm commented: “The decline in freight traffic issmall in percentage terms and should be temporary as the corresponding period in 2010 representedthe peak of the recovery. Most recent forecasts from the IMF predict robust GDP and trade volumegrowth in excess of 4 per cent. Passenger and freight growth are expected to remain well above thatfigure for the remainder of 2011.”
At a regional level, Latin America-Caribbean showed strong growth, up 14.8% in May. Closeranalysis showed this number driven by a surge in growth at Brazilian airports, with Sao Paulo (GRU)up 33% and Rio (GIG) up nearly 32%. Europe was the only other region in positive territory at 0.3%.
The Asia-Pacific region was down 5%, with Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul Incheon all decliningby double digits. North America volumes were 2.3% lower in May, the Middle East was down 0.6% andAfrica slumped 9.2%, according to the ACI survey.
Over the first five months, Latin America – Caribbean is leading the growth path with a 10.8%rise, ahead of Europe (+6.7%) and Africa (+6.2%). Asia Pacific, the world’s largest air freightregion, has low growth of 1.7%, North America is up just 1.3% and the Middle East has fractionalgrowth of 0.3%.
