Cargo volumes across Asia Pacific have picked up in July following a number of tough months, with freight tonne kilometres (FTK) increasing by 3.9 per cent, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) says.

FTKs across the region were up by 3.9 per cent to 5.5 billion though still down 1.5 per cent year-to-date (YTD) to 36.8 billion.

Capacity in freight available tonne kilometres increased by 3.4 per cent in July to 8.9 billion and by 2.4 per cent YTD to 60.1 billion.

The load factor increased by 0.4 percentage points to 62.1 per cent in July but was down 2.5 percentage points to 61.3 per cent YTD.

AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman says: “International air cargo demand has been relatively weak, with year-to-date demand registering a 1.5% decline compared to the same period a year ago, but we have seen a modest pickup in air cargo volumes during the past couple of months.”