Mideast carriers report 13% growth in air cargo

The Middle Eastern carriers continued their strong growth, expanding freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) by 13% in December and by 12.8% for 2013 as a whole, according to an IATA report.

By Santhosh V Perumal/Business ReporterImproving economic conditions in Europe as well as solid expansion in domestic Gulf economies helped the Middle Eastern carriers report 13% growth in air cargo against the global average of 1.4% in 2013, according to Iata (International Air Transport Association) figures.The Middle Eastern carriers continued their strong growth, expanding freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) by 13% in December and by 12.8% for 2013 as a whole, Iata  said in a report.In December global FTKs grew 1.8% compared to a year ago. This continues the positive trend in the latter half of 2013, though it was down from the November figure of 6.0%.Capacity grew by 3.6%, taking load factor down 0.8 percentage points on a year ago, to 46.3%, it said.European airlines reported cargo growth of 2.9% in December and 1.8% for the whole of 2013, the best volume performance of the traditional ‘big three’ aviation regions.Manufacturing indicators suggest that the fourth-quarter of 2013 was the strongest quarter for two-and-a-half years, and the outlook, particularly in Germany, is improving, according to Iata.North American airlines’ air freight volumes contracted 0.5% in December and fell by 0.4% for the whole of 2013, compared to 2012.Indicators of business activity in North America have shown some improvement in recent months, but remain below the levels seen at the start of 2013, it said.Latin American airlines’ freight volumes fell 5% in December, but for 2013 as a whole, increased by 2.4%. “This is a slower pace of growth than in 2012, largely reflecting sluggish growth in Brazil,” the report said.However, there have been signs of a steady pick-up since the third-quarter of the year, it added.African carriers saw their freight volumes rise 1.7% in December and grow 1% for 2013 overall. African volumes, after a strong start to 2013, suffered from a mid-year lull, which has continued into the second half of the year, with weakness in major economies like South Africa as well as a slowdown in regional trade dampening demand, it said.“2013 was a tough year for cargo. While we saw some improvement in demand from the second half of the year, we can still expect that 2014 will be a challenging year,” according to Tony Tyler, Iata’s director-general and CEO.Terming that 2014 will be a year of change for air cargo, he said a key measure of success will be in passing the tipping point on e-airwaybill implementation.“It will lay the foundation for further improvements for a modern paperless air cargo industry that can only be achieved by aligning all stakeholders, including governments, in a common vision,” he said.