Air cargo continued its outstanding performance into November, with freight volumes toppling the record set just a month earlier, according to WorldACD.
And for the third month in a row, the year-over-year yield increase in terms of U.S. dollars continued to remain in double figures. November yields were the highest since the recovery post-2009 crisis, growing 17.3% year-on-year even as the price of jet fuel increased by 35% over the same period.
Volume worldwide grew 1.3% in November month-on-month for a new record and rose 7.8% year-on-year, said the report. Airline revenues in U.S. dollars for November were more than 26% higher than in November 2016.
The WorldACD volume index, which shows every month the moving average for the last 12 months, steadily increased over the course of 2017, from just above 120 in January to 131.6 in November, with the baseline year of 2008 registering at 100.
A number of markets showed double-digit volume growth year-on-year. In the larger ones, these were Asia-Pacific to North America (+11.5%), Europe to the Middle East & South Asia or MESA (+11.3%), and MESA to Europe (+21.1%).
“Asia-Pacific strengthened its position as a prime growth market,” said the report.
Of the smaller markets, volumes from Central & South America (C&SA) to Europe expanded 12.2%; North America to MESA, 19.5%; and MESA to Africa, 20.1%.
Notably, of the various groups of airlines, those from Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe contributed more than average to the year-over-year volume growth of 7.8%. They managed to grow by 14.5%, 11.4%, 9.4%, and 8.7%, respectively.
Airlines based in MESA grew by 5.2% compared to November 2016, while airlines from C&SA saw their total volume decrease by 6.4%. Of the airlines growing more than 20% year-over-year, three are based in Africa, three in Europe, and two in MESA.
The most striking feature of the November figures was the yield increase from Europe. Measured in euro, yields jumped by almost 19% year-on-year to all destinations worldwide. The Americas played an important part in this jump: year-on-year yields from Europe to destination North America rose by 28% and to C&SA by 25%. In U.S. dollars, the figures were 40% and 36%, respectively.
Other origin areas shared in the U.S. dollar yield bonanza, except for C&SA, which saw its overall yield decrease slightly year-on-year.
Photo: VtTN
