San Francisco Air Imports down

February 23, 2009 by SwizStick  
Filed under Air Cargo

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As if things weren’t depressing enough for the air cargo market. Companies are cutting costs by shifting transport modes from airfreight to seafreight and slumping demand for Asian imports is cutting into the picture as well. According to this report from Air Cargo World, cargo traffic at SFO fell 36% in December, contributing to an overall freight decline of 14.4% for 2008.

International imports fell 43 percent at SFO in December from the same month the year before, a stark sign of the strong pullback in production from factories in China and exports from the region. China, Japan and Taiwan have issued reports in recent weeks that their overall exports went into free-fall in the closing weeks of 2008.

Los Angeles International Airport, the largest trans-Pacfic air cargo gateway in North America, reported a 24.3 percent decline in freight traffic in December, but LAX does separate international from domestic shipments in its public report on figures.

Overall cargo traffic at Los Angeles International fell 11.9 percent in 2008.

The numbers from San Francisco were even worse during the year, and the cargo tonnage contrasted sharply with passenger business that actually grew 4.5 percent in 2008 at SFO.

Look for January’s figures to be even worse. I imagine 2009 will look a lot worse than 2008.

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