Air cargo traffic around the world is showing signs of improvement despite a 4.2% year-on-yearfall in April 2012, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) claimed today.
The 4.2% drop compared with a fractional 0.3% reduction in available capacity, the airlineassociation’s latest monthly figures showed. International traffic declined 4.5% while capacity was0.2% higher last month, and domestic air cargo fell 2.7% with capacity down 2%.
The negative trend for 2012 as a whole is similar, although at lower levels. Over the first fourmonths of the year, overall air cargo traffic declined 2.3% on a 1.1% capacity rise. Internationaltraffic was down 2.5% on a 1.8% capacity increase, while the domestic drop of 0.9% was slightlyless than a 1.4% capacity reduction.
But IATA described the -4.2% headline figure as “somewhat misleading”. Air freight marketsslumped sharply in the first half of 2011 and bottomed out towards the end of the year, and variousdistortions and month-to-month volatility have marked the industry performance since the beginningof 2012, it pointed out. However, April cargo levels stood at about 2% higher than in November 2011and about 4% higher than Q4, 2011.
“There are signs that cargo has bottomed out. Amid the many distortions that have marked thefirst four months of the year, it is possible to identify the start of a growth trend in cargo forsome parts of the world. But economic uncertainty in Europe makes it very difficult to beoptimistic in the near to medium-term,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
There is also a clear regional imbalance in the traffic figure trends. About 80% of the recentimprovement has been captured by Middle Eastern airlines while air freight for the Asia-Pacific,European and North American carriers has continued to show weakness, IATA noted. Middle Easterncarriers increased their freight capacity by 15.1% in April compared to the previous year and grewtheir business by 14.5%.
In contrast, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a 7.3% decline in demand in April, well ahead of capacitycuts of 4.1%. This reflects weakening exports from China above all. European airlines saw a 4.9%fall in cargo traffic compared to the year before, despite having cut capacity by 0.2%, and NorthAmerican carriers showed 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 carriers showed a 6.1% increase in demand, behind a 9.0%increase in capacity.
