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2017 proves a bumper year for global air cargo industry, says WorldACD

GLOBAL air freight volumes reached record highs in 2017 on the back of November's strong performance which topped October's volume growth by 1.3 per cent, according to cargo analyst WorldACD.

For the third month in a row, the year-on-year yield increase measured in US dollars was in the double digits at 17.3 per cent, marking the industry's best year since 2009.

"With volumes growing at 7.8 per cent in November and 8.9 per cent in direct tonne kilometres (DTKs), airline revenues in US dollars for the month were more than 26 per cent higher than in November 2016," said WorldACD.

"The WorldACD volume index, showing every month the moving average for the then last 12 months, steadily increased over the course of 2017, from just over 120 in January to 131.6 in November (year 2008 = 100).

"The most striking feature of the November figures was the yield increase from Europe. Measured in euro, yields jumped by almost 19 per cent year on year to all destinations worldwide.

The Americas played an important part in this jump: Yields from Europe to destinations in North America rose by 28 per cent and to Central and South America (C&SA) by 25 per cent (in US dollars the figures were 40 and 36 per cent respectively).

"Other origin areas shared in the US dollar-yield bonanza with the exception of C&SA, which saw its overall yield decrease slightly; yields to its most important destination - North America - showed a marginal improvement of 1.3 per cent year on year.

"In terms of November volumes, a number of markets showed double digit growth figures. In the larger markets, these were Asia Pacific to North America (+11.5 per cent), Europe to Middle East & South Asia (MESA) (+11.3 per cent), and MESA to Europe (+21.1 per cent).

"Of the smaller markets we should mention C&SA to Europe (+12.2 per cent), North America to MESA (+19.5 per cent), and MESA to Africa (+20.1 per cent). Asia Pacific strengthened its position as a prime growth market.

"Looking at the various groups of airlines, we noted that airlines from Africa, North America, Asia Pacific and Europe contributed more than average to the overall 7.8 per cent growth. They grew 14.5 per cent, 11.4 per cent, 9.4 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively.

"Airlines based in MESA grew by 5.2 per cent year on year, while airlines from Central & South America saw their total volume decrease by 6.4 per cent. Of the airlines growing more than 20 per cent year on year, three are based in Africa, three in Europe and two in MESA."