Pictured: Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA
Demand measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTK) was up 11.4% in total and 12.4% for international operations, putting it at heights not seen since the peaks of 2021.
Capacity measured in available CTK (ACTK) increased by 6.2% in total and 8.2% for international operations, largely because of belly capacity growth, which rose 10.9% due to the passenger market.
Factors in the operating environment noted by IATA were that industrial production stayed level in August month-on-month and global cross border trade fell marginally.
The Purchasing Managers Index for global manufacturing output and for new export orders were both below 50 at 49.9 and 48.4 respectively, indicating contraction.
Inflation was mixed in August with the USA and EU falling to 2.6% and 2.4% respectively, while Japan went up to 3% and China continued its moderate upwards path at 0.7%.
Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA, says, “We continue to see very good news in air cargo markets. The sector recorded a second consecutive month of record high demand year-to-date. Even with record levels of capacity, yields are up 11.7% on 2023, 2% on the previous month, and 46% above pre-pandemic levels. This strong performance is underpinned by slow but steady growth in global trade, booming e-commerce, and continuing capacity constraints on maritime shipping.”
Asia-Pacific airlines had the strongest growth in August at 14.6%, with Asia-Africa trade up 21.2%, Asia-Europe by 18.4% and intra-Asia by 16.1%.
Intra-Asia air cargo was five percentage points lower than July, partly due to the social unrest in Bangladesh and Typhoon Shanshan in Japan, which both caused airport closures and flight cancellations.
North American airlines had 4.8% growth with Asia-North America increasing 9.3% and North-America Europe by 6.1%.
European carriers grew 13.5%, led by 28.9% growth on the Middle East-Europe lane, followed by 18.4% on the Asia-Europe lane and 15% for intra-European services.
Middle East carriers had 13.5% growth due to the Middle East-Europe lane and Middle East-Asia growing by 13.5%.
Latin America was up 14.5% and African carriers saw an increase of 7.5% with the Africa-Asia market maintaining double-digit growth at 21.1%.