Air cargo weakened further in July and is unlikely to improve anytime soon, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) reports.

In July, freight tonne kilometres were down 7.7% to 5.8 billion due to falling exports and a worsening trade outlook, alongside deteriorating business confidence.

Capacity in available freight tonne kilometres was up 0.4% to 9.9 billion, pushing down load factors by 5.2 percentage points to 58.9%.

Between January and July, FTKs fell by 6.2% to 40.3 billion, with FATK up 1.1% to 68.9 billion, and load factors falling 4.5 percentage points to 58.5%.

Andrew Herdman, director general of AAPA says: “Global trade conditions deteriorated further, as higher tariffs disrupted global supply chains, and Asian airlines saw international air cargo demand fall by 6.2% during the first seven months of the year. The weakness in air cargo markets is likely to extend into the coming months, unless we see some meaningful progress in trade negotiations.”