Growth in air freight carried by Middle Eastern carriers supported the industry result in August, with airlines in that region recording a 10.4% rise on a year ago, IATA has said in a report.
In August, the Middle Eastern carriers had seen their freight capacity rising 14.3%, the report said.
Major economies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have seen slowdowns in non-oil sectors in the second quarter, but the rates of growth remain robust and this should help sustain solid growth in air freight demand for local carriers.
The IATA data also showed global air freight markets showing that in August freight markets stabilised after two months of decline. Measured in Freight Tonne Kilometers (FTKs), air cargo volumes rose 0.2% compared to the same month a year ago. This is a modest improvement on July performance when freight demand contracted by 0.6% year-over-year.
Air freight volumes were broadly unchanged in August compared to a year ago, with freight tonne kilometres 0.2% higher. The August data shows a pause in earlier declines in air freight volumes, consistent with developments in world trade activity. That said, the trend in air freight volumes and world trade has been in decline for the best part of 2015.
The results varied widely by region. Carriers in the Middle East reported the most significant growth (10.4%) followed by African (2.3%) and European airlines (0.7%).
The most significant negative impact on the global performance was by Asia-Pacific based airlines (-1%); and those in North America (-3.3%) and Latin America (-7.3%). All regions reported capacity expansions ahead of growth in demand.
According to IATA, some of the conditions that led to the decline in world trade this year – a combination of weaker than expected global economic growth, particularly in emerging markets, as well as shifts toward the domestic market in China – are persisting.
“There are some tentative signs that things won’t get worse – export orders have stabilised – but if the current trend were to continue, we would see negative year-on-year comparisons in the coming months,” it said.
IATA director general and CEO Tony Tyler said, “After declines in June and July, signs of a stabilisation in air cargo are welcome. But all is not well. Total volumes are down 2% compared to the end of 2014. And some of the key reasons for the earlier weakness – for example, downgraded growth expectations in emerging Asia, and the rebalancing of the Chinese economy toward domestic consumption – are still there. Even though world trade volumes have slightly picked up, the industry will have to work hard to match the strong finish to 2014.”