Air freight traffic for the Asia-Pacific region dropped by almost 13 percent, inducing a global decline of over 7 percent, in January from the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from the Airports Council International (ACI).
Much of the decline was due to the closure of the Chinese industry for the Chinese New Year holidays, which led to major airports in the region seeing sharp declines, said ACI, the only worldwide association of airports, in a press release on March 5.
Shanghai and Hong Kong air cargo traffic decreased by 22.8 and 17.5 percent, respectively, in January.
Major airports in other regions experienced declines in freight as well. Based on the global sample of airports, 16 of the top 20 airports in freight volume all experienced year-over-year declines in January. Incheon, Anchorage, Paris, and Frankfurt each saw double-digit declines in air freight traffic.
Rafael Echevarne, ACI World’s economics director, said that as the climate of uncertainty sweeps across many economies, the outlook for air freight in 2012 was mixed.
“The December 2011 figures showed us that air freight was stabilizing to the levels of 2010. However, while the Chinese New Year is playing a role in January’s recent decline, the shroud of uncertainty hanging over global air freight makes it difficult to predict future growth patterns in the short run, particularly under such volatility across regions,” he said.
