Asia-Pacific’s 4.1 per cent cargo drop

INTERNATIONAL air cargo demand and capacity dropped by 4.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively in March, in the Asia-Pacific region compared with the same month last year.
Contrastingly, passenger numbers grew by 9.4 per cent and available seat capacity expanded by 5.6 per cent, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) reveals.
Andrew Herdman, director general of the trade association, blamed “a soft market and lingering concerns over weakening consumer demand, particularly in Europe” for the poor cargo results.
“The global macro-economic outlook is still overshadowed by the potentially dampening effects of stubbornly high oil prices, and poor growth prospects in Europe, but Asian economies are still delivering robust growth,” he states.
“Nevertheless, airline margins remain under pressure from high fuel costs, focusing attention on further efforts to tightly control costs and carefully match capacity to market demand.”
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