Worldwide air cargo revenue in the first half of the year fell by 9.3% versus the first half of 2014, with the Asia-Pacific and Europe origin and destination (O&D) pairs getting badly hit, according to the latest analysis of WorldACD.
Among the largest 100 city pairs in WorldACD’s database, those outside the trans-Pacific market virtually all suffered a considerable revenue loss year-over-year. In particular, the main O&D pairs between Asia-Pacific and Europe suffered heavily, with revenue losses varying between 13% and 47% of the previous year’s revenues, due more to yield deterioration than to volume loss.
Of the top 50 traffic streams outside the trans-Pacific market, only three recorded revenue growth—Nairobi-Amsterdam, Chicago-London and Mumbai-London.
Of the absolute volume growth worldwide, 37.5% came from pharmaceuticals and perishable only. The top 20 forwarders as a group grew less in volume than all other forwarders taken together, while half of their group suffered yield deterioration larger than the worldwide average.
WorldACD also looked at the demand drivers for air cargo volumes from a long-term point, noting significant differences in the performance of various product categories between the first half of 2012 and the second half of 2015.
The growth in perishables was largest to MESA (+59%) and Asia-Pacific (+35%). Perishables transport to Europe and North America lagged behind with growth figures of around 15% only.
In pharmaceuticals, Asia-Pacific (+74%) and MESA (+66%) again absorbed most of the growth. Looking at the total demand, the destinations MESA and North America both grew with 17%, while Europe (+3%) and Latin America (-7%) clearly lost appetite.
As for yield developments since 2008, the air cargo market data provider—using database containing information on more than 50 airlines and more than 16,000 agents—noted “striking differences” between the various yield developments between June 2008 and June 2015.
“It will not come as a surprise that none of the 12 interregional markets saw a yield increase,” it said. “The best performing market was North America to Asia Pacific, where the yield decrease could be limited to -9%. In all other markets, the decreases ranged from -22% (MESA to Europe) to -41% (Asia Pacific to Europe).”
June airfreight rises
Meantime, worldwide air cargo in June registered a year-over-year expansion of 2.6%, a figure that is higher than the May growth of 1.8%, according to WorldACD.
A particularly bright spot was the traffic from Europe, which leaped 5.9% in June year-over-year to reverse the 1.2% contraction in May. The origin Asia-Pacific recorded a year-over-year volume growth of only 0.4% (compared to 1.7% in May).
Incoming air cargo increased most in the regions Middle East and South Asia (MESA) with a 9.8% growth and North America, which grew 6.9% in June from last year. Africa (+5%) and MESA (+6.4%) were again among the best performing origins volume-wise.
Overall yield, though, fell again by 2% month-over-month, while yield excluding charges stood its ground.
Singapore Changi airfreight dips
Meanwhile Singapore Changi Airport reported a drop in airfreight volume of 2.2% to 151,300 tonnes in June 2015, while total cargo volume for the half-year rose 0.2% to 912,300 tonnes.
Photo: Africaspotter
