Global air freight volumes showed 'more modest growth' in June with a 2.1% increase on the same month last year, according to the latest figures from Airports Council International (ACI).
“International freight experienced weakness as volumes inched up by only 0.9%, whereas domestic traffic increased by 4.8%,” the airports trade body said.
While volumes were up 3.4% the first six months of 2015 on the same period last year, 'growth has become more subdued since global demand for foreign goods and commodities has weakened compared to 2014,' the ACI underlined.
“Business confidence was in limbo for the first half of 2015 and this is reflected in a weakening of orders by air and the build-up of inventories. While the prospect of future global economic growth is cause for optimism, there are two forces at play which are pushing the pendulum in opposite directions. As key regional economies such as North America get back on course, a cyclical slowdown in emerging markets is dampening the potential for significant advances in the global air freight market. Thus, future growth prospects in the latter half of 2015 will remain limited,” it said.
The Middle East was the stand-out region for air freight in the first half of 2015, according to ACI.
Ongoing capacity expansion in the Middle East, has seen airports and airlines capitalise on the strategic locations of major freight hubs in the region both for long-haul and short-haul operations.
“The Middle East experienced the greatest increase in accumulated volumes compared to other regions, at 8.6% year over year from January to June 2015. Dubai, the region’s largest freight hub, grew by 2.8% over the same period. While Dubai occupies a large share of air freight traffic in the Middle East region, other airports have significantly increased volumes in the first half of 2015. Both Doha (Qatar) and Dubai World Central, the second and third ranked airports, grew by 11.4% and 57.6% respectively.”
Meanwhile, two of the world's leading air cargo carriers, Lufthansa and Air France KLM have each announced a decline in volumes in July.
Last month, the German cargo carrier's traffic, expressed in revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs), was down 4.2% on July 2014, according to figures published by parent group Lufthansa.
The poor results in July follow the announcement by Lufthansa that its cargo division made an operating loss of €68 million in the second quarter of the year.
As for Air France KLM, its cargo business continued its downward spiral, with RTKs falling 10.4% on July 2014.
Operating losses deepened by €29 million in the second quarter of the year on a like-for-like basis compared to 2014 levels, to €78 million.
Air freight's global lacklustre performance is also reflected in the latest figures published by German airports group Fraport, which show a further weak month overall for Europe’s busiest cargo airport, Frankfurt.
Tonnages were down 2% in July, year on year, and for the first seven months of 2015, volumes were down 1.9% compared with the same period in 2014.
