Both air carriers and aviation hubs saw static cargo activity in July, the flat outcome described as “symptomatic” of the overall weaker economic growth, particularly of the slowdown in China and emerging economies.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said carriers recorded a 0.6% fall in July airfreight volumes measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTK) year-over-year.
The decline was broad-based across all regions except for Africa and the Middle East. The most pronounced falls were in the Americas, where international volumes were down more than 5% compared to July 2014.
“The recent stock-market turmoil shows that investors have real fears about the strength of the global economy. And the disappointing July freight performance is symptomatic of a broader slowdown in economic growth. The combination of China’s continued shift towards domestic markets, wider weakness in emerging markets, and slowing global trade indicates that it will continue to be a rough ride for air cargo in the months to come,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
In regional performance, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a fall in FTKs of 1.9% in July compared to July 2014, and capacity expanded 5.3%. The region has experienced notable declines in imports and exports during 2015, with Chinese manufacturing particularly struggling.
European carriers reported a fall in demand of 1.5% compared to a year ago and capacity rose 3.9%, while North American airlines experienced a decline of 3.7% year-on-year and capacity grew 5.4%. IATA said that the impact of the modal shift to air as a result of the West Coast ports’ strike in the U.S has faded. And although economic performance likely improved in the second quarter, “this does not seem to be driving stronger air freight demand,” it added.
Middle Eastern carriers saw the strongest growth with demand expanding by 10.8%, and capacity rising 18.3%. Latin American airlines reported a fall in demand of 5.1% year-on-year, and capacity expanded 3.2%. Finally, African carriers experienced growth in demand of 3.6%, and capacity rose by 11.4%.
Asia’s top airports log contractions
As this developed, airports likewise hardly experienced any growth in airfreight volumes year-over-year for July. Industry traffic contracted 0.7% for the month compared to the same period a year ago, affected by the slowdown in key emerging markets such as China, as well as oil-producing economies.
“The strong correlation between changes in air freight volumes and the business cycle coupled with the fact that a high concentration of the world’s major air freight hubs are located in the Asia Pacific region has inevitably resulted in a slowdown,” said Airports Council International (ACI), a worldwide association of airports.
The region’s top five airports experienced a contraction in freight volumes for the period. Hong Kong dropped by 1.9%. North American airfreight volumes were slightly more mixed in growth performance by the region’s busiest hubs, resulting in overall flat net growth. Whereas Memphis, a FedEx hub, and Louisville, a UPS hub, experienced growth of 2.5% and 4.2%, respectively, airports that have a larger international component to their freight saw volumes drop. Anchorage and Miami saw airfreight traffic drop by 5.6% and 2.3%, respectively.
Year-to-date, the industry has posted international volume growth of 3.2%, and on a rolling 12-month basis, has logged a 4% expansion.
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