Air cargo demand increases again in August

Air cargo demand improved again in August, which while "failing to impress", is better than growth in the first part of the year.
The latest figures from analyst WorldACD show that air cargo volumes increased by 2.3% year on year in August. This was an improvement on the 1.8% growth registered in July, but behind June’s 3% jump.
"One could say that the (Northern Hemisphere) summer has been almost as mild to the industry as the September weather in Europe," the analyst said.
"Whilst these figures still fail to impress, they are certainly better than those for the earlier months of the year. And with so many economies still stuttering, could one realistically hope for much higher growth?"
WorldACD added that worldwide US dollar yields improved slightly (0.5%) in August compared with a month earlier.
"Once again, the origins Africa and Central & South America did not contribute to the overall volume growth, but they managed to keep their yields much closer to last year’s levels than the other regions did.
"The same was noticeable on some of the larger origin and destinations, in particular Japan to the US Midwest, Germany to the US and Kenya to the Netherlands.
"Volume growth year on year was rather evenly spread over the various product categories, the only exception being pharmaceuticals which grew by about 10%."
WorldACD also looked into why its demand figure for July, which is based on weight, lagged behind IATA’s freight tonne km (FTK) growth of 5%.
It concluded that cargo growth on longer distance services outstripped those of shorter distance services, meaning FTKs, which also take into account the distance cargo was moved, improved faster than the weight carried.