NewGlobal air cargo returns to growth; Asia Pacific and Middle East to benefit most in 2015
Growth largely driven by uptick in world trade over the second half of 2014, and Asia-Pacific and Middle East contributed 46 per cent and 29 per cent respectively to market expansion
Carriers based in Asia Pacific and the Middle East are expected to benefit the most in 2015 from improving global air cargo trends after the two regions contributed the greatest traffic increase as the industry returned to growth last year, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
"After several years of stagnation, the air cargo business is growing again," said Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive of the industry body for airlines.
Full-year air cargo data released by IATA on Wednesday showed demand grew 4.5 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013, a significant increase from the 1.4 per cent recorded in 2013 over 2012.
Tyler said the growth was largely driven by the uptick in world trade over the second half of 2014, and that Asia-Pacific and the Middle East contributed 46 per cent and 29 per cent respectively to the market expansion as measured by freight tonne kilometres.
But the demand growth has not translated into earnings improvement as the industry continues to suffer from overcapacity as reflected in low load factor.
Capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres, grew by 3.7 per cent worldwide and 5.7 per cent in Asia, resulting in a slight fall in load factor to 55.4 per cent for Asia Pacific carriers - still the highest of all regions and well above the global average of 45.7 per cent in the past year, IATA data show.