Freight demand increased by 5.4% in November, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
The freight load factor stood at 55.2% for the month, the organisation said in a statement.
“November saw traffic growth slow from the 10% increase recorded in the passenger business and the 14.5% growth in freight in October. The slowdown in 2010 is partially skewed because of the exceptionally rapid rise in traffic volumes recorded during the fourth quarter of 2009. However, when viewed in absolute terms, air travel fell by 0.8% and air freight fell by 1.1% between October and November 2010,” reads the statement.
This slower growth does not necessarily signal a negative trend, according to Iata. “Even with the decline in November, passenger and freight traffic are still expanding at annualised rates of 5-6%, which is in line with the industry’s historical growth trend.”
Giovanni Bisignani, Iata’s director general and CEO, believes the industry is shifting gears in the recovery cycle.
“Relative weakness in developed markets is being offset by the momentum of economic expansion in developing markets,” he said. “We see a strong end to 2010 that boosted the year’s profit forecast to $15.1 billion. Slowing traffic growth is in line with our projections for a reduced profit of $9.1 billion for 2011. That’s a 1.5% margin. More hard work will be needed in the New Year to achieve sustainable levels of profitability.”
Bigger vessels add 45% capacity on Asia-South America service
CSAV substantially upgraded capacity on its Asia/East coast South
America service - the ASAX service – late last month.
From the third week of December the line started phasing in 6500 TEU
vessels to replace the 12 x 4 000/5 300 TEUs previously deployed on the route. This has increased capacity by
almost 45%, a spokesman said.
The first westbound sailing included a call at Durban which was dropped n July when CSAV launched the New Discovery service covering the South
Africa trade
