Demand for air freight has picked up

IATA (International Air Transport Association) released its data on global air cargo markets for the month of September. Demand for air freight picked up (+ 3.7%) compared to the previous month but remains much lower (-9.9%) than the same month last year.

 

 

 

According to IATA data, global demand, measured in freight tonne-kilometers (CTK: cargo tonne-kilometers), was 8% lower than the previous year's levels in September (-9.9% for international operations). This is an improvement from the 12.1% year-over-year decline recorded in August. Monthly demand increased by 3.7% in September. Global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTK), decreased by 25.2% in September (-28% for international operations) compared to the previous year. This is almost 3 times larger than the contraction in demand, indicating a serious lack of capacity in the market.

 

 

 

Strong regional variations appear, for the Asia-Pacific region, the demand for international air freight fell by 14.6% in September 2020 compared to the same month 1 year earlier. For the Euro zone, demand fell by 15.7% compared to the previous year. For the Middle East, year-over-year international freight volumes fell by 2.5% in September, which is an improvement from the 6.7% decline in August. For the Latin America zone, a decrease of 22.2% compared to the previous year.

 

 

 

On the contrary, for the North America zone, demand increased by 1.5% compared to the previous year, which constitutes the 1st month of growth in 10 months. For the African zone, demand increased by 9.7% year on year in September. This was the 5th consecutive month in which the region had the strongest increase in international demand.