ACI: Airfreight volumes ‘revive’ in Q1

Airports Council International (ACI) has noted a rise in air cargo volumes over the first quarter of this year (the three months ended March 31).
“Improvements in business confidence, economic outlook and global trade have helped revive airfreight volumes in the first quarter of 2017,” ACI stated. “Overall freight volumes increased 8.3% year over year in the first quarter of 2017 and 10.9% for the month of March. This increase has coincided with an increase in export orders and inventory build-ups in key markets.”
Looking at the performance of individual regions during March, the strongest growth in airfreight volumes occurred in Africa (+15.6% on the same month of 2016) and the Middle East (+15.5%), followed by Europe (+13.7%) and Asia Pacific (+13.0%). North America was up 5.9% and Latin America-Caribbean rose 4.7% year on year.