Air cargo has had a “healthy” start to the year with 7.6 per cent growth in the first two months of 2017, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).

Freight tonne kilometres (FTK) were up to 9.96 billion, with capacity rising 2.5 per cent to 16.68 billion available FTK, helping push load factors up 2.9 percentage points to 59.8 per cent.

In February, FTKs were up 11.3 per cent to 4.58 billion, with a small increase in capacity of 1.2 per cent to 7.62 billion, with the load factor rising 5.4 percentage points to 60.1 per cent.

AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman says: “During the same period, air cargo demand registered a healthy 7.6% increase, with a boost in demand for air cargo shipments of intermediate and finished goods.”

He continues: “High levels of business and consumer confidence across most major markets underpins continued optimism for further growth in both air passenger and cargo demand.”