Slowing airfreight market growth is raising concerns for the industry, as it dipped to a one-year low of 1.3% in May, and half of the top 30 airports logged decreases.
In particular, the disappointing economic performance of Europe and the weakening movement of international exports from Asia “signal ongoing trepidations” for the market, says Airports Council International (ACI), the global trade representative of the world’s airports.
The ongoing issues in the Euro area were reflected in a 0.6% decrease in total freight as compared to the previous year, while domestic freight in Europe declined by a significant 5.6% and international freight was down slightly by 0.5%.
The Middle East outpaced Asia-Pacific with 4.4% versus 1.6% growth in total freight in May year-over-year, while North America and Latin America each showed 1.1% growth in total freight traffic. Africa posted an optimistic 10.3% increase, driven by total freight traffic growth of 9.4% and 15.9% in Johannesburg and Casablanca, respectively.
Out of top 30 airports by airfreight traffic, 15 posted a decrease in total freight volumes from the previous year. Paris and Miami declined by a substantial 7.6% and 5.7%, respectively. Other major freight hubs—Frankfurt, Taipei, Tokyo, and Bangkok—followed with 3.4%, 2.9%, 2.7%, and 2.7% declines in freight volumes, respectively.
“May shows diverging results for passenger and air freight traffic. Robust growth in passenger traffic was led by Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. (On) the other hand, weak growth in air freight coupled with significant declines in major international airfreight hubs raises concerns about the second half of the year,” said ACI.
“While international tourism remains buoyant, the weaker than expected economic performance of Europe and the slowdown of international exports from Asia signal ongoing trepidations,” it further said.
Cathay Pacific cargo flattens
Meanwhile, latest traffic figures from Cathay Pacific Airways mirrored a similar trend for its Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carriers in June, as the two recorded only a marginal increase in cargo and mail carried, while passenger growth remained strong.
The Hong Kong-based sister airlines delivered 141,136 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 0.5% compared to June 2014. The cargo and mail load factor fell by 2.2 percentage points to 62.7%.
Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 5.9%, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown increased by 2.2%.
In the first six months of 2015, tonnage rose by 8% against a capacity increase of 8.9% and a 10.5% rise in RTKs.
“Growth in the cargo markets has been softening as the year has progressed and we saw a continuation of this trend in June,” Mark Sutch, Cathay Pacific general manager for cargo sales and marketing, said.
He said last month’s tonnage growth was almost flat year-over-year and “fell well short of the increase in capacity in percentage terms.”
“Traffic out of the home market was generally steady but demand out of Mainland China was more sporadic, and was again affected by strong competition,” he continued. “Leveraging our strong network in Southeast Asia helped maintain traffic flows on our transpacific services and we did not trim capacity on these lanes. Conversely, demand from Asia to Europe remained weak and we pared back freighter services on these routes, relying instead on our extensive passenger aircraft belly lift.”
Photo: Joe Ravi
