Asia-Pacific airlines’ demand for air freight falls by 7.4 percent: IATA

May 30, 2019: International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported that Asia-Pacific airlines saw demand for air freight contract by 7.4 percent in April 2019, compared to the same period in 2018. It warned that the latest round of US tariffs would likely have a negative impact sentiment and activity in the region.

IATA also reported that the industry-wide demand for the global air freight markets fell 4.7 percent, while freight capacity grew by 26 percent in April 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.

“April saw a sharp decline in air cargo growth and the trend is clearly negative this year. Cost inputs are rising, trade tensions are affecting confidence, and global trade is weakening. Airlines are adjusting their capacity growth to try and fall into line with the dip in global trade since the end of 2018. It all adds up to a challenging year ahead for the cargo business. Governments should respond by easing trade barriers in order to drive economic activity,” said Alexandre de Juniac, director general and CEO, IATA.

The timing of Chinese New Year and Easter seem to have caused the volatility in the air cargo volumes, according to IATA, which represents some 290 airlines comprising 82% of global air traffic. It added that the volumes are around 3 percent below the August 2018 peak.

The decline in new export orders is due to Brexit-related trade uncertainty in Europe and trade tensions between the US and China, according to IATA.

While adding that the global measure has been indicating negative export demand since September, it predicted subdued annual FTK growth in the coming months on account of continued weakness.