Dec. air freight suffers unprecedented drop

The slowdown in trade from the global recession caused air freight volumes to plunge 22 percent in December compared with 2007, the largest monthly fall in 30 years, according to statistics released last week by the International Air Transport Association.

   The decline is worse than the airline industry experienced following the 9/11 terrorist attacks when air freight dropped 13.9 percent. Air freight volumes in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America regions were all down by more than 20 percent in December.

   The month-over-month freight volume decline from November to December was 12 percent.

   The air cargo industry was globally growing at about 4 percent early in 2008, but the economic crisis in the second half reversed those gains and more. Overall volume at the end of the year was 4 percent less than in 2007.

   Airline passenger volume was off 4.6 percent in December and up 1.6 percent for the year.

   Cargo prospects look bleak for airlines in the coming year. IATA said it expects air freight to fall 5 percent in 2009 and revenue to decline 6.5 percent.

   Airlines are cutting capacity to reduce costs, but demand is falling faster than capacity can be taken out of the system. Asia Pacific carriers removed 5.6 percent of their passenger seats in December, but passenger traffic dropped at almost double that pace, IATA said. North America is the only region where airlines are shrinking their business faster than the rate of falling passenger demand.

Source: American Shipper