International air cargo and passenger demand showed encouraging expansion in April on the back of sustained growth in the global economy, traffic figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed.
Backed by strong international demand, business conditions continued to improve across Asian economies, in turn lending support to global trade activity. This helped underpin further growth in air cargo volumes in April, with demand in freight tonne kilometer terms registering a 9.0% increase compared to the same month last year.
Offered freight capacity by Asian carriers grew more modestly, by 2.8% for the month. As a result, the average international freight load factor increased by 3.7 percentage points to reach 65.1%.
Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general, said that in the first four months of the year, Asian airlines recorded a solid 9.5% increase in air cargo demand, supported by a pickup in export orders across the region’s economies.
Meanwhile, the region’s airlines carried 25.6 million international passengers for the month, representing a 5.3% increase year-on-year. Reflecting solid growth in long-haul travel markets, demand as measured in revenue passenger kilometers grew by 9.2%.
The growth in demand, coupled with a 6.2% expansion in available seat capacity, led to a 2.3 percentage point increase in the average international passenger load factor to a high of 80.4% for the month.
From January to April, regional carriers registered a 5.2% increase in international passenger numbers, rising to 103 million passengers carried.
“The broad-based expansion in global economic activity, coupled with renewed demand on selected routes, particularly between Europe and Asia, has contributed to growth in long-haul travel markets in recent months, whilst regional travel markets remain strong supported by a combination of competitive air fares and expansion in the region’s economies.”
Looking ahead, Herdman continued, “Business and consumer confidence indicators remain positive and underpin expectations of continued growth in air passenger and cargo markets in the coming months.”
But he observed that rising fuel and staff costs are a concern, particularly as airfares have remained low in an intensely competitive environment.
