News
- Airfreight inching towards recovery
- 8/18/2009
Battered mode shows moderate month-over-month improvements
The beleaguered air cargo sector continued to show small signs of recovery in June.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that global cargo demand was 16.5 percent lower than it was in June 2008.
While the year-over-year gap remains substantial, it is narrowing. In May, demand was 17.4 percent lower than it was a year earlier; from December 2008 through April, year-over-year demand was off by more than 20 percent.
IATA is attributing the slight uptick in June to moderate increases in world trade. Still, shippers are retaining relatively high inventory levels, which is keeping demand soft.
Regionally, European carriers experienced the worst month in June, with freight demand off 20.3 percent year-over-year. North American carriers held an 18.6 percent gap—relatively unchanged from May—while African and Latin American carriers saw declines of 20.2 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively. Middle Eastern carriers reported a 4.2 percent decrease from 2008 levels.