International Air Cargo – The Gloom Continues
I find myself looking forward to IATA’s monthly airline traffic report. Not because I am a sadist, but because in my industry, the report is an excellent barometer of the state of air cargo. Their latest report details extremely dismal numbers for the month of January. During the final month of 2008, international air cargo decreased 22.6 percent compared to the same period last year. 2009 is now off to an abysmal start with air cargo decreasing 23.2 percent, marking the eight consecutive month of air cargo contraction. Not good.
“Alarm bells are ringing everywhere. Every region’s carriers are reporting big drops in cargo. And, aside from the Middle East carriers, passenger demand is falling in all regions. The industry is in a global crisis and we have not yet seen the bottom,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
Asia Pacific carriers, representing 43% of the market, led the cargo decline with a 28.1% year-on-year drop. This was followed closely by the other major market players: European carriers (-23.0%) and North American carriers (-19.3%).
Passenger traffic didn’t fare well either for the airlines. During January, international passenger demand fell by 5.6 percent compared to the same month in 2008.
In my current market, I have definitely seen a decrease in international air import shipments; however, our air export demand has remained fairly consistent with the latter half of 2008.
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