Global air freight volume up 6.8% in November

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), demand for global air freight grew 6.8% year-on-year in November, as measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK). This is a little behind October’s growth of 8.2% year-on-year.

The growth rate in November was boosted primarily by Africa and Europe, which saw 10.9% and 9% increase in volume respectively.

However, growth in Europe was possibly hampered by the Lufthansa strikes, while capacity in Africa (measured in available freight tonne kilometres, or AFTK) surged by almost 27%, leading to a falling freight load factor (a measure of capacity utilised) of -3.7%.

The Middle East saw 7.8% growth, Asia Pacific 6.1%, and North America only 5.6%. Latin America's air cargo dropped 1.3% in volume.

Alexandre de Juniac, CEO and Director General of IATA, described “a strong peak season”, but stated that “it remains critically important for the air cargo industry to continue to improve its value offering by implementing modern customer-centric processes.”

He stated that while there are signs that worldwide growth will continue into 2017, the global growth rate is still by and large “stagnant”.

(Source: IATA)