Africa among the stars of Iata’s latest traffic results

The air cargo industry is showing signs of having bottomed out – and amid the many distortions that have marked the first four months of the year, it is possible to identify the start of a growth trend in cargo for some parts of the world. That’s the word from the International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Tony Tyler who did however caution that economic uncertainty in Europe made it very difficult to be optimistic in the near to medium-term. Iata’s global traffic results for April showed that freight demand was 4.2% down on April 2011 but Tyler said that this contraction was somewhat misleading. “Air freight markets slumped sharply in the first half of 2011 and bottomed out towards the end of the year. Various distortions and month-to-month volatility have marked the industry performance since the beginning of 2012. However, April cargo levels stood at about 2% higher than in November 2011. About 80% of this improvement has been captured by Middle Eastern airlines. Air freight for the Asia-Pacific, European and North American carriers has continued to show weakness,” he said. Air freight markets, while weak, are now showing some signs of expansion, according to Tyler, with African carriers among the star performers with a 6.1% increase in demand, behind a 9.0% increase in capacity. Asia-Pacific carriers saw a 7.3% decline in demand in April, well ahead of capacity cuts of 4.1%, reflecting weakening exports from China. European airlines meanwhile saw a 4.9% fall in cargo traffic compared to the year before, despite having cut capacity by 0.2%, while North American carriers showed a 6.4% drop in demand with a 2.9% cut in capacity. Latin American carriers recorded a 3.6% fall in demand even though capacity expanded by 8.8% compared to April 2011 and Middle Eastern carriers were the bright spot in cargo with a 14.5% increase in demand. But this was behind a 15.1% increase in capacity. “In the face of economic uncertainty, many airline managements will be going back to first principles – careful capacity management, cost control and conserving cash,” said Tyler. “This will be the order of the day until some clarity comes to the global economic outlook. Of course the uncertainty impacts the whole value chain. We are all in this together. Airlines will be particularly looking to their industry partners to share the imperative on cost control,” said Tyler. Iata will update its industry financial outlook on June 11 at the Association’s annual general meeting to be held in Beijing, China.