By Pratap John/Chief Business Reporter
Middle East airlines have maintained strong growth in air freight, registering 12.3% gain year-on-year and 0.8% month-on-month in February, International Air Transport Association has said in its latest report.
“Airlines in the region continue to benefit from increased trade activity with emerging economies in Asia and Africa,” Iata said.
Iata data shows air cargo maintained modest improvement in demand that began in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Seasonally adjusted cargo volumes are 2.5% above the October 2012 low point. Comparisons with February 2012 performance, however, show a 6.2% decline.
This, Iata said, is severely skewed as a result of two factors - February 2012 had an extra day owing to the leap year and the Chinese New Year (which is accompanied by many factory closings in Asia) occurred in January 2012 and in February 2013.
After adjusting for these factors, however, air cargo was actually up 2% in February compared to the previous year.
Iata director general and CEO Tony Tyler said: “February’s air cargo performance has sustained the weak recovery that began in the fourth quarter of 2012. This is welcome news after two consecutive years of contraction. It is even better news that this growth is expected to pick up moderately as the year progresses. But improvements cannot be taken for granted. Events in Cyprus have reminded us that the eurozone crisis is far from over. Any resulting loss of business confidence could shift the outlook for the worse.”
Air cargo volumes declined by 0.6% in 2011 and a further 1.5% in 2012. Markets stabilised and began a weak recovery trend in the last quarter of 2012.
According to Iata, international economic indicators are suggesting that the global economy bottomed out in the third quarter of 2012. Industrial production and business confidence measures have been improving since then.
“Demand for sea shipments already reflects the recovery in some parts of the world. But we are not yet seeing the positive impact of this in air cargo markets. While it remains to be seen if this is a long-term modal shift, it is clear that sea shipping is becoming a stronger competitor to air cargo,” said Tyler.
“The air cargo value chain is embracing the technological change needed to make e-Freight a reality. For example, we are targeting 100% e-Air Waybill (e-AWB) utilisation by 2015, a major stepping stone to going paperless. This would boost the competitiveness of air cargo with more efficient processing and faster deliveries. More efficient connectivity in turn will foster economic growth. The industry is united in its efforts to modernise business practices. But we need governments, regulators and customs authorities on board too. The e-Freight system cannot happen while regulators insist on seeing paper copies of documents,” said Tyler.
A major step towards implementation of e-Freight was achieved in March with the endorsement by the Cargo Services Conference of the “Multilateral e-AWB”, which avoids the need for bilateral e-AWB agreements between airlines and freight forwarders.
This new agreement will play a major role in increasing take-up of the e-AWB to reach the industry target of 100% utilisation by 2015.
