ACI reports on positive September freight figures

According to the latest statistics from Airports Council International (ACI), global air cargo volumes rose year on year by 5.9% in September.
International freight traffic was up by 7% compared to the same month of 2015, domestic cargo volumes by 3.3%.
ACI attributed the surge in international traffic in the main to a significant rise in demand for electronic devices shipped out of Asia.
All regions of the world enjoyed year on year improvements in airfreight traffic in September with the exception of Africa, which recorded a fall of 4.2%.
Europe had the highest rate of growth (up 7.6%), followed by the Asia-Pacific and North America regions, which enjoyed increases of 6.7% and 5.5% respectively.
Both the Latin America-Caribbean and the Middle East regions experienced a 3.1% increase in airfreight traffic.
Of the 20 biggest air cargo hubs around the world, 15 airports reported growth rates of more than 5.0% and only two experienced slight losses.
However, ACI warned, while the increase in cargo volumes is reason for optimism, and September’s data builds on an impressive year on year improvement in traffic in August, the association believes that is still too early to point to any sustained recovery.
Regional breakdown 
Declining African volumes were reflected in the significant declines in cargo traffic seen at major commercial airports in Kenya and South Africa.
The two major air freight hubs of the region – Nairobi and Johannesburg – suffered year on year declines of 7.7% and 10.3% respectively in their airfreight traffic.
More positively, Cairo benefited from a 6.0% growth in volumes.
Asia-Pacific
In the Asia-Pacific region, India, Korea and China all handled more air cargo in September than they had in the same month of 2015.
In terms of the region’s biggest airfreight gateways, Hong Kong’s cargo traffic rose by 7.2%, Shanghai Pudong’s by 7.4% and Seoul Incheon’s by 8.1%.
The release and replacement of mobile devices such as the Galaxy Note 7 and iPhone 7 stimulated traffic.
Europe
In Europe, all major cargo hubs showed an increase in air freight activity, ACI reported.
The German, French and UK markets enjoyed 6.6%, 5.1% and 6.7% growth respectively in terms of airport freight traffic.
However, ACI revealed, the main drivers for the continent’s airfreight traffic increase year on year was the double-digit growth rates observed at major commercial airports in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Russia and Switzerland (up 19%, 10.8%, 13.5%, 14.1%, 20.9% and 14.2% respectively).
Istanbul’s Atatürk enjoyed particularly strong airfreight traffic growth, as did Moscow Sheremetyevo.
Significant growth was also seen at Frankfurt (up 6.2%), Paris Charles de Gaulle (up 5.2%) and Luxembourg (up 14.1%).
Latin America-Caribbean
The three primary airfreight markets of South America – Colombia, Mexico and Brazil – experienced mixed fortunes. While Colombian air cargo traffic fell year on year by 0.7%, Mexico’s volumes rose by 10.8% and Brazil’s airfreight sector began to show signs of recovery (down 2.4%).
Middle East
While six commercial airports in the UAE reported a combined decline of 2.7% in airfreight volumes, Doha in Qatar saw its volumes rise by 16.3%. Strong growth was also recorded in Israel (up 24.8%) and Oman (up 19.8%).
North America
The major contributors to the positive trend in North America’s airfreight traffic figures were the airports of Chicago O’Hare (up 16%), Anchorage (up 5.6%) and Los Angeles (up 5.9%).
Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world’s airports, was founded in 1991. As the beginning of this year, ACI represented a total of 592 members operating 1,853 airports in 173 countries.