Worldwide airfreight volumes in October 2017 increased by a robust 6.9% year-over-year, but revenue growth in U.S. dollars is even more impressive, expanding 20.5% compared to October 2016, according to the latest data culled from 75 airlines by WorldACD.
“With the recovery under way for more than a year now, the 10% increases seen earlier this year are now behind us. However, for the fourteenth month in succession, the industry showed a year-over-year (YoY) growth well above 5%, easily outpacing the growth in world trade. And the records set in October are almost certain to be broken when November figures will be in,” said the trade organization.
It said the very strong showing in U.S. dollar revenue was driven in particular by a number of factors. These include an impressive yield growth from Europe and the Middle East & South Asia, in particular from India. Another factor is the high volume growth from Europe, from and to North America, and to Central & South America.
Among the top 20 origin countries, the report noted a more than average year-on-year volume growth in parts of the U.S. (Atlantic South, +19.1%, and Midwest, +14.4%), Vietnam (+16.6%), Australia (+15.9%), Japan (+12.3%), the UK (+10.4%), Spain (+8.6%), and Germany (+7.6%).
Lagging behind were such diverse origins as Taiwan (-8.8%), the Netherlands (+1.5%), China East (+2.9%), and India (+3.7%).
In the various categories of specific cargo products, the transport of pharmaceuticals had the largest year-on-year revenue growth (+31%), thanks to a healthy volume increase of 19%, coupled with an increase of more than 10% in yields that are already more than 50% higher than average air cargo yields.
Developments in the two largest product categories were quite different. The transport of high tech & vulnerable goods thrived (both volume and yields increased by more than 11%), but fruits & vegetables were less in demand compared with October 2016.
The edibles’ volumes decreased by 2.5% year-over-year, while their average yields hardly gained ground. Compared with the previous month, however, this sector did very well, with a revenue increase of 16.3% over September 2017.
