WorldACD is reporting no change from the air cargo front as negative trends continue in May with falling volumes.

Saying “it is difficult to believe that the year will recover from its dismal start” to 2019, WorldACD reports that chargeable weight decreased 5% year-on-year whilst yields in US dollars fell 5.6%, resulting in revenue loss of more than 10% for airlines.

No region could escape, with Africa and Europe coming off least badly, only seeing volumes dropping 2.2% and 2.4% respectively.

Asia Pacific and North America saw losses of 7% and 7.2% respectively, while Latin America and Middle East & South Asia (MESA) were down 4% and 3.4% respectively.

WorldACD says that May’s year-on-year performance was slightly better than in April, the monthly decrease was still larger than the decrease for the first four months taken together, “in other words: still no recovery in sight”.

For January-May, only Africa saw positive growth of 0.4%, largely driven by an increase of 2.3% in East Africa.

Among other sub-regions, Central Asia grew by 12.6%, Northern Europe by 10.9%, Levant & Caucasus by 3.6% and Australasia by 2.5%.

WorldACD says that some people find comparisons with 2017 more realistic, given the “extreme” growth figures of 2018.

Compared to January-May 2017, air cargo has grown 1% with 22 of the 40 largest air cargo countries showing positive growth.

Growth varies between 0.1% in India and 32.6% in Chile, with South American growth from Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia, Asia Pacific being represented by Vietnam, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and India, in Europe by Norway, Turkey, UK, Switzerland and Luxembourg, in North America by Canada, Mexico and the USA, and by South Africa for Africa.

Ten of these countries also grew from 2018 to 2019, with Norway, Pakistan and Vietnam registering double digit increases.