Pictured: Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA
The data says that cargo tonne kilometres (CTK) were down 0.1% in total and up 0.4% for international operations, with IATA adding that comparisons are affected by February 2024 being a leap year.
Capacity measured in available CTK was down 0.4% in total and up 1.1% for international operations.
Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA said February 2024 was an unusual month with the extra day and was boosted by Chinese New Year traffic, sea lane closures and the e-commerce boom.
He says, “Rising trade tensions are, of course, a concern for air cargo. With equity markets already showing their discomfort, we urge governments to focus on dialogue over tariffs.”
Factors that affected the operating environment include the industrial production index rising 3.2% in January and world trade expanding by 5%.
Jet fuel prices averaged $94.6 per barrel in February, down 2.1% in January.
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for global manufacturing output was 51.5 in February, above the 50-mark, indicating growth and the PMI for new export orders edged up to 49.6.
Consumer inflation eased slightly in the USA, Europe and Japan in February, while China recorded its first decline in 11 months, reinforcing deflationary pressure in the economy.
Demand across Asia Pacific increased 5.1% in February, with Asia-North America, which has a 24.4% share of the industry, growing 0.1%, Europe-Asia posted its 24% consecutive month of growth, going up 4.7% and intra-Asian cargo growing 9%.
The Middle East had an 11.9% drop with the Middle East-Europe lane falling 14.1% and Middle East-Asia down 6.2%.
North American carriers were down 0.4%, European carriers by 0.1% and African carriers saw a fall of 5.7%.
Latin American carriers registered 6% growth in February.