Airlines play it by ear as Iata figures paint a bleak picture

There is a marked global slowdown in airfreight – and Africa and SA are getting a good share of this ill fortune. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) international traffic data for August confirms a continuing downturn – with international freight traffic seeing its third consecutive month of contraction, and a 2.7% decline following drops of 1.9% in July and 0.8% in June. The 6.8% decline in international freight shipped by carriers in the Asia Pacific region had the greatest impact as they comprise 45% of the global air cargo markets. The other big market players also showed weakness. European carriers experienced a 0.9% decline, while US carriers reported weak growth of 0.8%. Backing that up was Africa, with a decline of -2.3% in freight-tonne kilometres (FTK) in August, and a drop of -6.6% for the year-to-date. Robyn Chalmers, SAA group corporate affairs head, confirmed that the national carrier was feeling the effects of the slowdown. “SAA Cargo has, in keeping with the industry at large, also experienced a reduction in freight volumes due to the pressing economic climate,” she told FTW. “In accordance with Iata projections, SAAC dropped from an estimated growth rate of 6% for the year to 2.8% – effectively a 3.2% drop in freight volumes for this current financial year (April 1, 2008-March 31, 2009).” In real terms, according to Patrick Fehring, British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) regional commercial manager, Africa, the airline was looking at a marginal volume increase this year. “Our tonnages from SA were 4% down year-on-year,” he said. “However, the key reason for this is that we decided to stop carrying an automotive flow which we were carrying last year. If we take this flow out, we were actually a few tonnes up year-on-year.” BAWC, he added, saw what he termed “a solid” 15% growth in its Johannesburg market, and “stable volumes” from Cape Town. “The only market that has really not performed for us is Durban,” he said, “and I believe this is the case for other carriers as well. Overall, we have seen encouraging growth in general cargo volumes yearon- year and I believe we had the right promotions in place to drive this.” Kum Naicker, manager of Emirates Skycargo, professes to no pain at all – pointing to Iata’s figures showing 11.4% FTK growth for the Middle East in August, and 10.6% for the first eight months of the year. And August is traditionally a cargo volume low spot for Emirates anyway, he told FTW. “It’s a holiday month in the United Arab Emirates,” he said. “And, when I profile my flights from here, it is always my low period. “We’ll see how things go in the next three months, because October-November- December is our peak period.”