Though struggling, Asia-North America airfreight still growing, says report

For all the woes besetting the air cargo industry this year, WorldACD data indicates that certain groups of airlines and certain markets have been doing quite well for themselves in the past three years.

In a new analysis, the air cargo data aggregator compared September 2014-August 2015 (most recent 12-month period) to the year 2012 to see the changes in the market position of airlines, grouped by where they come from.

What emerged was that airlines from the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) fared best in the recent period. This group increased air cargo volume by 31% against a worldwide growth of 11%. Airlines from Asia-Pacific grew their volumes by 10%, while European and North American carriers stayed behind the worldwide average, with growth of 5% and 0%, respectively, for the period September 2014-August 2015.

The report further noted: “MESA airlines performed well above average in the markets to and from their region. The same could not be said for the other groups: Asia Pacific airlines as a group were on average, whilst the groups of European airlines (to some degree) and of American airlines (in particular) lagged behind in the markets to and from their own continent.”

As for markets, those to North America grew by 16%. European carriers figured prominently in this development with a growth of 17%, strongly driven by their exceptional increase in business from Asia-Pacific to North America. However, in the total business to and from the Asia-Pacific, European airlines missed the boat, said the report. North American airlines did very well in markets from Europe (+15%).

In one of the top growth markets, Asia-Pacific to North America and vice versa, volumes increased by 32% and 19%, respectively. WorldACD noted that the beneficiaries of this growth were largely airlines from Asia-Pacific. Airlines from Europe and MESA showed the highest percentage growth in this market, though from a modest base, while airlines from North America actually saw their business shrink in the past three years.

Meanwhile, August air cargo volumes continued the pattern set earlier this year, in which volumes are stagnant and yields keep falling. The month showed a year-over-year volume increase of 0.9%, while month-over-month dollar yields fell again, this time by 1.2% (yields in August 2014 decreased by 0.8% vs July 2014).

Africa and Latin America, the smaller regions in terms of air cargo, bucked the trend, however. Africa showed a volume increase in air exports of almost 10% year-on-year coupled with a month-on-month yield drop of 0.2% only. Latin America saw month-on-month yields increase by 3.5% for outgoing and by 1% for incoming traffic, but together with North America, posted a small negative volume growth year-over-year.

Airlines saw small month-on-month dollar yield increase in August in more than half of the interregional markets: from Africa to Asia-Pacific, from Latin America and Europe, from Latin America to virtually all destination regions, from Europe to Africa and Latin America, from MESA to Asia-Pacific, and from North America to all destinations except MESA and Africa.

Photo: BriYYZ