Air cargo volumes remained high but growth was flat in November, according to figures released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).

Freight tonne kilometres (FTK) were up 0.1% to 6.47 billion while capacity in available FTKs were up 5.9% to 9.9 billion, pushing load factors down 3.8 percentage points to 65.2%.

For the year between January and November, FTKs were up 4.3% to 66.8 billion, AFTK by 6.7% to 105.5 billion and load factors fell by 1.5 percentage points to 63.4%.

Andrew Herdman, director general of AAPA says: “The moderation in export activity with slowing business orders, contributed to the slowdown in air cargo growth for the month, although this was mitigated by higher volumes of e-commerce shipments going into the end-year festive season.”

Herdman says the 4.3% growth is a “reasonably solid growth rate” following the increase of 9.6% annual increase in 2017.

Looking ahead, Herdman says: “Continued moderate growth in the global economy and lowered oil prices should support further expansion in air travel demand and air cargo markets in the coming year, although the recent deterioration in trade sentiment and uncertainties over the potential impact on consumer confidence levels present some downside risks.”