The decline in global air cargo volumes continued in November, with the world’s busiestinternational cargo airport, Hong Kong, reporting a 6.6% drop in traffic, and similar sharp drops
reported at airports in Europe.The decline in Hong Kong was mainly the result of a 10% year-on-year drop in exports. Importsdecreased by 3%, while transhipment volumes were flat, registering growth of just 0.1%. Traffic toand from Europe and North America experienced double-digit year-on-year declines during themonth.
Over the first 11 months of the year, air freight traffic handled at the airport declined 4.6%to 3.6 million tonnes.
Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said that cargo demand for the Christmas season hadfailed to peak in November, with its freight volumes down 13.8% year on year – the eighthconsecutive month of decline. Although the airline has reduced capacity in the face of continuedweak demand from its key Hong Kong and China markets, its cargo load factor was down 6.3 percentagepoints to 65.3%.
Cargo general manager James Woodrow said: “November is traditionally the busiest time for ourcargo business in the build-up to the Christmas season in the United States and Europe, but thepeak simply didn’t arrive this year.”
Factory output in China shrank again in December after new orders fell, a preliminary purchasingmanagers’ survey showed last Thursday, as manufacturers continue to struggle with waning globaldemand and tight domestic credit conditions. However, demand within the Asia-Pacific regionremained relatively healthy, Woodrow said.
Europe’s busiest cargo airport, Frankfurt, saw its freight volumes decline by 10.2% in November,compared to the historic November high of 2010, to 178,000 tonnes, although this figure wasaffected by the migration of some of Lufthansa Cargo’s freighters to Cologne due to thenight-flight ban imposed at Frankfurt since the opening of the airport’s fourth runway.
In contrast, Frankfurt’s airmail volumes in November 2011 rose by 5.1% year on year to 7,720tonnes. For the 11 months to November 2011, air freight tonnage dropped by 2.5%.
Cargo handled at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport dropped 7.2% year on year in November, to 127,000tonnes. Mail volumes were up 13.4% to 2,600 tonnes. Freight volumes for the 11 months from Januaryto November were down 0.7% year on year, while mail was up by 2.9%.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has downgraded its air cargo forecast for2012, in response to worsening global GDP expectations. IATA now believes air cargo volumes in 2012will be flat, down from the previous forecast of a 4.2% expansion in traffic.
This follows a downward trend in air cargo since the middle of this year, which means that cargovolumes for the full year are expected to show a 0.5% contraction in volumes, the organisationpredicted.
FedEx last week reported that its international priority package volumes were down 3% in thequarter ending 30 September, driven by declines from Asia. The integrator confirmed it had beenreducing its overall intercontinental capacity during the last few months, to better match capacitywith demand.
FedEx said it expected its international express parcel volumes to be flat during the next twoquarters, with domestic express volumes expected to be flat or slightly down, while it expected tosee continued growth in its Ground services.
