While the global average growth for airfreight volumes in November edged up 1.6% over the same month in 2011, according to the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the African region has been one of the headline performers in volumes, with a year-onyear growth of 4.4%. And, according to Alwyn Rautenbach, MD of Airlink Cargo and vicechairman of the Air Cargo Operators’ Committee (Acoc), the committee’s global numbers indicate a similar improvement in SA airfreight in the same comparative period. “The SA market definitely got better,” he told FTW. “And, with the continuing expansion of mining and oil production on the continent, we’ll definitely see an ongoing increase in airfreight throughout southern Africa.” Iata also expressed greater optimism about the general trend in air cargo movement – pointing out that the November increase followed a 2.6% decrease in October. The stats also showed that the trend in airfreight markets showed improvement – expanding 2.4% in November compared to October. “Business confidence improved again in November,” said the association’s statement, “reaching levels which indicate stability in the business environment in the months ahead. “This could provide support to airfreight demand in the coming months, beyond the current boost associated mostly with the holiday season.” As is usually the case, Iata regional figures showed that Asia-Pacific airlines were responsible for almost half the rise in total volumes compared to October. The region’s 2.4% rise in month-on-month volumes was in contrast to a 1.5% decline for the October to November trend in 2011. Freight capacity also fell 2.8% over the period. Iata noted that the rise in air freight volumes carried by Asia-Pacific airlines resulted from exports from the region to the US increasing. “Better economic fundamentals in the US have seen consumers become notably more confident over recent months,” the association said, “and that appears to be translating to greater demand for air freighted consumer goods.” But, before getting too excited, Iata stressed that it was important to note, despite the November improvement, that airfreight had been weak throughout 2012 with global freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) down 1.6% year-todate. North American carriers increased freight traffic by 1.7%, and cut capacity by 0.6%, compared to November 2011. European airlines’ yearon- year freight traffic was flat, and capacity grew just 0.3%. Middle East carriers’ freight showed the strongest year-onyear growth of any region, up 16% on just a 6.1% rise in capacity. Load factor surged to 46.7%, up 4 percentage points. Latin American airlines’ freight grew 4.2% year-onyear, but capacity grew at more than twice the rate, up 8.5%. As already noted, African carriers grew freight volumes by 4.4% compared to November 2011. Although they kept the capacity increase to 3.6%, the load factor of 26.2% was still the weakest of all regions by a wide margin. Africa also played a very minor role in the airfreight movement of goods worldwide. Iata stats show that total freight traffic market shares by region of carriers in terms of FTK are: Asia- Pacific 39.1%, North America 23.3%, Europe 21.5%, Middle East 11.6%, Latin America 3.3%, and Africa a paltry1.2%. CAPTION Ongoing increase in airfreight throughout southern Africa expected.
