Chinese New Year distorts airfreight stats

The latest statistics released by the International Air Transport Association last week reveal that air freight volumes increased in February from a year ago, but largely as a result of cargo shipments that were postponed in January during the Chinese New Year holiday. In addition the comparison is being made to the weak Arab Spring period a year ago. The trend in air freight, taking into account these impacts, shows a decline in the total market of 1.2% in February compared to January, with the majority of that coming from international freight markets that fell by 1.9%. The month-onmonth comparison of international markets also reveals that Asia/ Pacific, the largest air freight region, trended upward by only 1% – putting in perspective the inflated year-onyear growth rate of 8.9%. Nevertheless, Asia/Pacific was the only region, other than the Middle East, to gain over the month in February.