Airfreight is now at levels not seen since the 2010 post-recession bounce-back, but is facing strong competition from other types of freight, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) market analysis for October.
In October, the Middle East saw the biggest year-on-year rise in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) of any region, up 13 per cent on the same month last year. Africa saw the next biggest rise of 9.6 per cent, which IATA says is because of strong performance from South Africa. Asia is up 6.7 per cent, followed by Latin America at 4.1 per cent, North America at 3.1 per cent. Europe saw the smallest increase of 1.4 per cent, because of the economic uncertainty and sanctions as a result of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. As a whole, FTK was up 5.4 per cent in October.
IATA director general and chief executive officer, Tony Tyler, says: “We are now back to levels of demand not seen since the 2010 post-recession bounce-back. But the industry is in the hot seat and under pressure to improve its value offering. Customer expectations have evolved dramatically. Other modes of transport have improved their competitiveness.”
Available FTK (AFTK) in Africa and North America contracted by 2.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, the only regions to see declines in October. AFTK rose by 2.3 per cent and 5.7 per cent in Latin America and Asia Pacific, respectively, the only regions to see an increase lower than the rise in FTK. It rose by 4.4 per cent in Europe and 15.8 per cent in Middle East, which was above the increase in FTK.
The overall load factor in October was 47 per cent, though Asia Pacific and Europe were the only regions above this, at 56.6 per cent and 47.1 per cent, respectively. The load factor in Latin America was 46 per cent, with the Middle East the next highest at 44.5 per cent. The load factor in North America was 37.6 per cent and Africa had the lowest load factor in October of 32.2 per cent.
The YTD load factor for all regions was 45.2 per cent. Asia Pacific had the highest YTD load factor of 54.9 per cent, followed by Europe where the load factor was 46.3 per cent. The Middle East load factor was 44.2 per cent, followed by North America at 34.9 per cent. The load factor was lowest in Africa at 29.8 per cent.
