Air freight volumes for all regions showed the growing impact of adverse market movements that started last September as they fell both year-on-year and month-on-month in April 2019, according to WorldACD.
For both incoming and outgoing air cargo, each region returned year-on-year volume figures for the month that are worse than those in the first quarter of the year, underscoring the clear slowdown in global business, it said.
Total chargeable weight in April was down 6.4% year-over-year and 9.6% month-over-month, while in terms of direct ton kilometers, volume contracted 6.7% year-on-year.
General cargo decreased 9.9% year-on-year, but special cargo increased 2.1% year-over-year. High-tech & other vulnerable goods—the largest category for special cargo—increased by 5.2% year-on-year in April, while the second largest category (pharma & temperature controlled goods) rose by 4.1% year-on-year.
The cargo load factor dropped by 3.8 percentage points year-on-year in April, and by 3.6 month-on-month.
For Asia-Pacific, outgoing volume in chargeable weight contracted 6.5% in April year-on-year and by 4.4% in the first quarter of 2019 as compared to the same period in 2018. For incoming cargo, the decline was 9.1% year-on-year in April and 5.7% in the first quarter compared to last year.
Doubtless, the bigger air cargo regions are being hit hardest, said WorldACD. Traffic from Asia Pacific to Africa grew, but that hardly offers consolation to the Asia Pacific market. For Europe and North America, as well as the Middle East and South Asia, the contraction of business from these areas was shown in negative percentages not seen for years.
And the trend in worldwide yields further contributes to worsening results for airlines. While yields measured in U.S. dollar grew by 11% from 2017 to 2018, they have fallen by 5% from January to April 2018 to January-April 2019. And their year-on-year decline is growing by the month.
In April, yield increased to $1.81, down 6.3% year-on-year and up 0.3% month-on-month. The yield measured in euro stood at 1.61.
Photo: Gerd Altmann
