Global airport freight traffic on both international and domestic fronts posted strong growths in August, overtaking the pace of global passenger traffic, which weakened during the period, according to the latest data from Airports Council International (ACI).
Cargo volumes grew 4.8% in August, with equally strong growth rates in international and domestic freight volumes (4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). This is the first time since February 2015 that freight traffic growth exceeded passenger traffic growth, said ACI. The aggregated freight traffic growth is 1.2% since January 2016.
The three largest airfreight markets—North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe—posted 6.7%, 4.5%, and 4.4% growth in total freight, respectively, for August. In the Middle East, total freight traffic grew 3.5%, while in Africa and Latin America-Caribbean, total freight traffic growth was weaker at 0.3% and 0.9%, respectively.
Asia-Pacific and Europe, the two largest international freight markets, grew 5% and 4.5%, respectively. In North America, international freight traffic grew a robust 6.3%, while international freight in the Middle East declined to 3.5%. International freight remained flat at 0.1% in Latin America-Caribbean while in Africa, it plunged into negative territory at 0.3%.
In North America, the largest domestic freight market, domestic freight volumes grew a strong 6.7%, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific (4.1% and 3.1%, respectively). In Latin America-Caribbean, domestic freight was weaker at 2.4%.
On the other hand, airport passenger traffic lost momentum from a growth rate of 5.4% in July to 3.6% in August. International passenger traffic grew 4.0% while domestic passenger traffic slowed to 3.3%, the lowest growth rate since June 2014. Accumulated passenger traffic grew 5.2% from January to August 2016 as compared to the previous year.
The highest growth rates in total passenger traffic were observed in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific (8.1% and 7.5%, respectively), followed by North America, Latin America-Caribbean and Europe (2.3%, 2.2%, and 1.9% respectively). Africa sustained a 3.2% loss in total passenger traffic during August.
International passenger traffic continued to grow at high rates in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions (8.5% and 8.3%, respectively). North America boasted a strong 4.6% growth rate, while Europe declined to 2.0%. Latin America-Caribbean, largely driven by the aviation upsurge in Mexico, grew 5.0%. Only Africa lagged behind with a 3.6% loss in international passenger traffic.
Domestic passenger traffic was weaker than international passenger traffic in all regions except for Africa, where the decline in domestic passenger traffic was less pronounced than in international passenger traffic (-2.9%). Traffic in Europe and North America grew 1.8% and 1.9% respectively. In Latin America-Caribbean, dominated by recessionary Brazil, domestic passenger traffic went up 1.1%. Asia-Pacific demonstrated the strongest growth at 7.0%.
Photo: Panhard
