U.S. air cargo continues boom

U.S. air cargo continues boom    Air freight and express international cargo carried by U.S. airlines surged 16 percent to about 1.04 billion revenue ton-miles in September from 903 million in September 2003, the U.S. Air Transport Association reported.
   Freight and express activity increased 17 percent to 547 million revenue ton-miles on Pacific routes in September, and also rose 17 percent to 403 million ton-miles on Atlantic routes in the same month.
   The increase on Latin routes was 6 percent to 96 million ton-miles.
   Helped by the diversion of ocean shipments to air freight in the transpacific, international air freight and express traffic has reached about 1.05 billion revenue ton-miles a month for the past five months, compared to about 950 million tons-miles a month in May-September 2003.
   For the first nine months of the year, freight and express cargo carried by the association’s airlines increased 10 percent year-on-year to 8.9 billion revenue ton-miles.
   Air Transport Association airlines are Aloha, Alaska, America West, American, ATA, Continental (including Micronesia), Delta, FedEx, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Midwest, Northwest. Southwest, United, UPS and U.S. Airways.