IATA: Airfreight volumes up 1% in September

Year-over-year cargo volumes continued to rebound after a relatively flat August, but volumes are still down 1.2 percent down from their peak at the end of 2014, according to the International Air Transport Association.    Airfreight volumes grew 1 percent in September compared with September 2014, according to the latest figures from The International Air Transport Association (IATA).
   Year-over-year cargo volumes continued to rebound after a relatively flat August in which volumes were up just 0.2 percent year-over-year following a 0.7 percent drop in July.
   Current volumes, however, are still down 1.2 percent down from their peak at the end of 2014.
   Middle Eastern airfreight carriers saw the most significant growth for the second straight month, with cargo volumes growing 7.5 percent after a 10.4 percent year-over-year jump in August. Airlines in Europe and Africa increased their volumes 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, while carriers based in the Asia-Pacific region recorded negligible growth of 0.3 percent in the same period.
   Meanwhile, Latin American airlines reported another sizable loss, as volumes dipped 6.4 percent in September following a 7.3 percent August decline.
   North American airlines carriers saw September volumes drop 3.3 percent after falling 1 percent the previous month.
   IATA said the weakness in air cargo markets is generally in line with what it characterized as “anemic” international trade growth.
   “Although slightly improved from August, the global trend is fragile, and the improvement is narrowly based,” IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler said in a statement. “The 2.8% growth reported by European carriers reflects positive trends in trade with Central and Eastern European economies as well as a general improvement in manufacturing in the Eurozone. But the largest air cargo region, Asia-Pacific, was only just in positive territory, held down by weak regional trade.”
   “The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was agreed with the intent of promoting economic growth and prosperity by liberalizing trade across participating economies,” the association added.
   “Trade is the path to prosperity,” said Tyler. “We have high hopes that the TPP will deliver its promised benefits to participating economies with air transport — cargo and passenger — playing its role as one of the catalysts for growth.”