Year-to-date airfreight good news for Africa

African airlines recorded relatively slower growth in June, up 2.4% on June 2012. This lags the year-to-date trend of 4.3%, which is the second best of all regions. With economic growth in some key African markets looking strong, demand for high-value light weight consumer goods should rise, helping air freight volumes in the months to come. This June, Asia-Pacific demand continued to be weak, with volumes contracting 1.8% compared to June 2012 and by 2.3% over the first six months of the year. This is the weakest performance among the regions and reflects the broad impact of the slowing Chinese economic expansion. By contrast, European carriers grew freight volumes by 2.6% compared to June 2012. Although the Eurozone remains in recession, there are some signs of stability. For example, manufacturing activity contracted at its slowest pace in 16 months, easing pressure on key economies such as Italy, Spain and France. Moreover an improvement in consumer confidence is likely to support demand for the sale of light-weight high-value goods that are typically shipped by air. North American airlines reported a 1.2% contraction year-on-year for June and a 1.6% fall over the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. The US economy looks to have slowed in the second quarter. Business activity continues to expand; however at a slower pace than in previous months. Middle Eastern airlines saw a continued robust expansion of demand with freight volumes growing by 12.7% year-on-year. The consistent high growth in recent years, as the region’s carriers take advantage of the geographical position of the Middle East, has led to a substantial increase in its share of world air freight. Latin American airlines experienced a 7.0% growth in cargo volumes compared to June 2012. This is almost double the year to date trend of 3.7% growth. Latin-American exports have been growing faster than any other region in recent months, underpinning this stronger performance.