Global air freight volumes continued their decline in April, confirmed by airport figurespublished this week by Airports Council International (ACI), which reported a 4% year-on-year
decline in traffic among its members’ 1,650 airports worldwide, as uncertainty over Europecontinues to damage the prospects of a global recovery.The decline was evident at many of the world’s major hubs, with 15 of the top 20 freightairports − which together make up more than 50% of global air freight volumes − reportingcontractions in traffic levels. The contraction in freight traffic was especially evident in theeconomies of North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, with declines of 7%, 4.3% and 3.1%,respectively. Anchorage International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport andFrankfurt/Main Airport, for example, each experienced double digit declines of 16.7%, 12.3% and10.8%, respectively.
ACI World’s Economics Director Rafael Echevarne commented: “The European debt problem is havinga contagion effect on other economies and trading partners. Traffic volume in air freight has beencurtailed not only in the economies of Europe but also in the trading hubs of North America,Asia-Pacific and Latin America.”
This picture contrasted with the situation for the international passenger air market, whichexperienced year-on-year growth of almost 6% in April, meaning that bellyhold cargo capacity hascontinued to expand while cargo traffic has declined, adding to the pressure on air cargo operatorsto cut freighter capacity and air cargo prices.
The airport figures broadly mirror those recently reported by airline association IATA, whichrecorded a 4.2% year-on-year fall in April, although IATA argued that air cargo traffic around theworld was showing signs of improvement. The 4.2% drop in demand compared with a 0.3% reduction inavailable capacity, indicating a drop in cargo load factors of around 4 percentage points.International traffic declined 4.5% while capacity was 0.2% higher last month, and domestic aircargo fell 2.7% with capacity down 2%.
IATA’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler said there were signs that cargo had “bottomed out”and that it was possible to identify the start of a growth trend in cargo for some parts of theworld. But economic uncertainty in Europe meant it was “still very difficult to be optimistic inthe near to medium-term”.
There are also clear regional differences; while air freight for IATA’s Asia-Pacific, Europeanand North American carriers has continued to show weakness, Middle Eastern carriers increased theircargo business by 14.5% in April, on the back of a 15.1% increase in freight capacity compared tothe previous year.
In contrast, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a 7.3% decline in demand in April, well ahead of capacitycuts of 4.1%, reflects weakening exports from China above all. European airlines saw a 4.9% fall incargo traffic compared to the year before, cutting capacity by 0.2%, and North American carriersshowed a 6.4% drop in demand with a 2.9% cut in capacity. Latin American carriers recorded a 3.6%fall in demand even though capacity expanded by 8.8% compared to April 2011, while African carriersshowed a 6.1% increase in demand, boosted by a 9% increase in capacity.
Mark Whitehead, Managing Director of Hong Cargo Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl), the largesthandler at the world’s biggest international cargo airport, told CEP Research: “The growth is withthe Gulf carriers – they are all doing well through Hong Kong, for example to Africa. US trade isdown, but not materially, but European trade is significantly down, both in and out.”
Whitehead said that European airlines simply do not know what is going to happen in Europe as aresult of the continuing sovereign debt crisis in several Eurozone countries. He added: “There is arecord all-time low for inventory, which is traditionally good for air freight, but the carriers Ihave spoken with are not bullish about the second half of 2012.”
