Air freight demand impacted globally due to trade tensions between the US and China.
“At the moment, the problem is geo-political situation.” Gary Chapman president of Dnata said.
“The trade wars going on between China and the USA and is spreading over. Generally, airfreight is down year-on-year and is not showing any signs of getting worse but it is down below where it was. Right across the globe, there is less cargo movement.”
“In Dubai, we are down about between 5 and 6 per cent, year- to-date compared to the previous year. There are places in the world which are down about 10 to 12 per cent and globally, it is between 5 and 10 per cent.”
Global air freight markets suffered a 2.2 per cent year-on-year decline in demand in July 2019 as trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies continue impacting the global economic growth, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said in a report released last month.
Middle Eastern airlines saw a dramatic drop in freight demand of any region with freight tonne kilometres of cargo decreasing 5.5 per cent in July.
“There are no signs of improving at the moment, until a resolution is found and things settle down between USA and China, I suspect this will continue,” Gary Chapman added.
“We just opened a new cargo facility in Heathrow and we are continuing to invest in the future and looking at new opportunities”.
The ground handling division of Emirates airline also opened new catering facilities in seven different locations in the US, he added.
