That was the year that was
31 / 01 / 2012
INTERNATIONAL cargo markets contracted 0.6 per cent during last year, IATA says.
“Healthy passenger growth, primarily in the first half of the year, was offset by a declining cargo market,” Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general, comments.
Although international freight markets shrank 0.8 per cent in December, compared to a year ago, December international demand was 1.5 per cent ahead of the level in November, while domestic demand was up 3.2 per cent compared to November and 5.5 per cent compared to December 2010.
Freight markets have now shown sequential month-over-month growth in November and December, indicating that international trade may be stabilising.
Freight load factors declined considerably to 45.9 per cent in 2011, as measures to match capacity with demand by reducing the freighter fleet have been offset by introduction of new twin aisle passenger aircraft, IATA says.
“Let’s hope that 2012 will be the year when politicians put the required political capital behind important projects such as the Single European Sky and NextGen in the US,” Tyler adds.
