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WorldACD: Dismal year continues for air cargo industry

The negative trend in air cargo continued in May and the dismal start to the year shows no signs of recovery, according to WorldACD Market Data.

The analyst said in the month, total chargeable weight again decreased year-on-year (YOY), this time by five per cent, whilst yields (in USD) fell by 5.6 per cent, resulting in revenue loss for the airlines of more than 10 per cent YOY.

WorldACD noted not a single region escaped the trend but the origins Africa and Europe suffered least, with YOY volume drops of 2.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively, but the origins Asia Pacific and North America chalked up YOY losses of seven per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively. Latin America and the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) could not buck the trend either posting losses of four per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively.

Although the YOY performance in May was slightly better than in April, the May volume decrease was still larger than the decrease for the first four months taken together.

WorldACD said: “In other words: still no recovery in sight. For the period January-May 2019, only the region Africa showed positive growth, albeit very small (+0.4 per cent), largely driven by a 2.3 per cent increase in business from East Africa.

“Among the other sub-regions, Central Asia (+12.6 per cent), Northern Europe (+10.9 per cent), Levant & Caucasus (+3.6 per cent) and Australasia (+2.5 per cent) distinguished themselves.”

The analyst said while air cargo from the USA to China fell sharply in April by 14.7 per cent YOY, much more than the overall decrease ex-USA, in May it fell ‘only’ by 6.2 per cent YOY (less than the overall decrease ex-USA).

From China to the USA, the situation was though quite different a fell by 3.5 per cent in April and three per cent in May – much smaller percentages than in the other direction, but both being larger than the general decrease in air cargo exports from China.

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