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Asian airlines reported that cargo volumes rose above pre-recession levels in July, but one of the region’s leading associations has warned growth would weaken as the economy stabilised.
Preliminary figures for July from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) revealed that the airlines’ international cargo volumes grew by 27.7% on the same month last year, to reach 5.7 billion freight tonne kilometres (FTK).
AAPA said the growth was underpinned by “strong trade flows”.
Even with a 20.3% year-on-year increase in freight capacity, the average international cargo-load factor climbed by 4.2% to reach 71.6% as cargo space reached eight billion available FTK.
Andrew Herdman, AAPA Director General said: “International air cargo demand recorded 33.7% growth in traffic for the first seven months of the year.
“The very high growth rates, a result of the surprisingly sharp v-shaped recovery, will obviously taper off as the economy stabilises and reverts to a more normal pattern of growth.
“Asia Pacific airlines are generally well placed to benefit from the improving business environment, and are making some measured additions to capacity and selective expansion of their route networks – although continuing uncertainties about the prospects for further growth in North America and Europe suggest a measure of caution.
“From a business perspective, therefore, Asian airlines are still focused on careful management of capacity, tight cost controls and ongoing efforts to achieve further productivity improvements, as the industry strives to restore profitability after two years of heavy losses.”
Between January and the end of July, AAPA said Asia Pacific airlines had carried 37 billion FTK, compared with 27.6 billion during the same period last year.
Capacity for the period totalled 52 billion AFTK, compared with 44.6 billion over the same period last year, giving a load factor of 71%, compared with 61.9% last year.
IATA has also predicted a slowdown in air freight market recovery as the second half of the year progressed.
International Freighting Weekly
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