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World air cargo rises in June on strong growth in Asia Pacific and Europe

A STRONG showing from the Asia Pacific and European airlines has pushed up air cargo volume growth, with the worldwide chargeable weight rising 2.7 per cent year on year in June.

WorldACD analysts say incoming traffic in the Asia Pacific region in June grew 7.1 per cent and outgoing traffic was up 6.6 per cent year on year, reported London's Air Cargo News.

"Europe as a destination continued to do well [up 4.8 per cent year on year], but Africa and Central and South America fell back, in incoming as in outgoing air cargo volumes," they said.

"With a drop of almost 11 per cent, African imports were particularly hard hit. North America performed on average, while the region Middle East & South Asia (MESA) was lacklustre with a performance below the other areas in the northern hemisphere."

Looking at individual product categories, most grew in line with the overall trend, but pharma demand was up 10 per cent.

"Bellyhold capacity grew most from MESA to Europe [up 6.8 per cent], but a good part of that capacity growth was taken up by cargo carried [up 4.9 per cent]. In the other direction, the figures were an increase of 5.3 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively," said WorldACD.

"For Europe to North America, however, the picture was more worrisome: a bellyhold capacity growth of 5.5 per cent combined with a volume decrease of 1.5 per cent," it said.

For the second quarter of the year, demand was up 2.1 per cent on last year. "As far as destination areas are concerned, growth was only recorded for Asia Pacific and Europe, both over five per cent."