The Airports Council International (ACI) says airfreight volumes remained in a “lacklustre state in May, due to the backdrop of sluggish global trade growth.
ACI explains while the industry was vulnerable to the macroeconomic context, it was also competing with other modes of delivery as freight load factors continued to exhibit weakness.
Total global freight through gateways was up year-on-year (YOY) by 0.6 per cent in May, and so far this year it has risen YOY by 0.2 per cent for the first five months of 2016. On a 12-month rolling basis it is up slightly YOY by 0.7 per cent.
ACI says international freight was up 0.5 per cent YOY in May, but for the first five months it is down 0.8 per cent YOY, while domestic freight is up 0.9 per cent in May, but up 2.4 per cent YOY so far this year.
The Middle East reported moderate YOY growth in total freight of 3.3 per cent for May, followed by Europe with 2.7 per cent and Asia-Pacific with 1.4 per cent.
But on the other hand, North America, Latin America-Caribbean and Africa reported air freight had declined 1.5 per cent, 3.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively.
At the individual airport level, eight of the top 20 largest airfreight hubs reported declines in volumes, including Hong Kong (-1.1 per cent), Frankfurt ( -1.7 per cent) and Beijing (-5.1 per cent).
