U.S. international air cargo surge continued in October

U.S. international air cargo surge continued in October Rapid growth in international air freight and express shipments carried by U.S. airlines continued in October, with traffic rising 14 percent to 1.1 billion revenue ton-miles, from 993 million in October 2003, according to the latest statistics of the U.S. Air Transport Association.
   The monthly increase for October follows a 16-percent traffic rise in international air freight and express traffic registered by the ATA for
September.
   Freight and express activity on Pacific routes expanded 14 percent to 583 million revenue ton-miles in October. Traffic on Atlantic increased 16.5 percent to 447 million ton-miles in the same month. Latin routes for October rose 5 percent to 104 million ton-miles.
   For the first 10 months of the year, freight and express cargo carried by the association’s airlines increased 11 percent to 10 billion revenue ton-miles.
   Very high growth rates in air cargo traffic have been reported for all major regions worldwide. The International Air Transport Association reported last week that worldwide air cargo traffic was up 14 percent year-on-year in the period January-October, when measured in freight-ton-kilometers.
   Airlines of the Air Transport Association are Aloha, Alaska, America West, American, ATA, Continental (including Micronesia), Delta, FedEx, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Midwest, Northwest. Southwest, United, UPS and US Airways.