No recovery in sight for air cargo

The latest figures from WorldACD do not offer any hopes for a recovery in air cargo growth this year, according to the analyst.

Figures show that the total chargeable weight of cargo decreased by 5% year on year in May, whilst yields in US dollar terms were down 5.6% on a year ago.

WorldACD said that the year-on-year decline for May was slightly better than the April figure, but was still behind the figure for the first four months of the year.

The analyst said: “Not a single region escaped the trend: the origins Africa and Europe suffered least, with YoY volume drops of 2.2% and 2.4% respectively, but the origins Asia Pacific and North America chalked up YoY losses of -7.0 % and -7.2 % respectively. Latin America and the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) could not buck the trend either (-4% and -3.4%).”

General cargo for May was 7.2% behind a year ago, while special cargo was 0.1% behind. High-Tech & Other Vulnerable Goods, the largest category special cargo, increased by 5.3% year on year , whilst the second largest category, Pharma & Temperature Controlled Goods, rose by 9.9%.

The cargo load factor dropped 2.1 percentage points compared with a year earlier.

However, the analyst did find some good news when it compared 2019 to 2017.

“To end on a slightly more optimistic note, let’s join the people who find that a comparison with 2017 is more ‘realistic’ than a comparison with 2018, given last year’s ‘extreme’ growth figures,” WorldACD said.

“Compared with Jan-May 2017, the year 2019 so far shows worldwide growth of +1%. Moreover, 22 of the 40 largest air cargo countries in the world show positive growth for the same period. The growth percentages between 2017 and 2019 range from 32.6% for Chile to 0.1% for India.

“This group of growth countries consists of four countries from South America (Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia), nine countries from Asia & Pacific (Vietnam, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, India), five European countries (Norway, Turkey, UK, Switzerland, Luxemburg), the 3 North American countries Canada, Mexico, USA, and one African country (South Africa).”

(AirCargoNews)