Airfreight is continuing to go down, and may well end 2019 in the negative, according to Airports Council International (ACI) World.

After falling 2.8% year-on-year in May, the global freight market was down 5.1% in June, pushing the total for the first half of 2019 down 3.2%.

The airfreight figures are in contrast to the passenger sector, which has grown 3.6% in the first half of the year.

Angela Gittens, director of ACI World says: “The trade tensions that persist between several major economies – and the accompanying GDP growth slowdown – have had more impact on the air freight industry, which could possibly end 2019 in the negative.”

International freight struggled with June down 6.5% year-on-year, and a 5% decline year-to-date, the domestic sector faired less badly with June only down 1.4% and year-to-date up 1.3%.

Year-to-date, only Africa and North America saw total airfreight volumes increasing, up 1.6% and 0.5% respectively.

Asia-Pacific saw the largest fall, down 5.9% year-to-date followed by Europe at 4.4%.

The Middle East declined by 2.7% in the first half of 2019 and Latin America-Caribbean was down 1.9%.