Air Freight News
Below are links to stories relating to air freight
IATA air freight data over the past year month by month – slowing very small growth
IATA monthly data show global air freight is only rising very slowly indeed, with falls in some months. For instance, measuring FTK (Freight Tonne Kilometres) the increase was +0.5% in September 2013; + 3.5% in August; + 1.2% in July; + 1.2% in June 2013; + 0.8% in May 2013; + 1.4% in April 2013; - 2.3% in March 2013; - 6.2% in Feb 2013 ; + 5.0% in Jan 2013; - 0.3% in Dec 2013; + 1.6% in Nov 2012; and -.3.5% in Oct 2012. For all of 2012, the amount of freight was down - 1.5% compared to 2011. And in 2011 the total number of freight kilometres was itself down by - 0.7% compared to 2010. At present, the total freight traffic market shares by region of carriers in terms of FTK are: Asia-Pacific 38.8%, Europe 23.9%, North America 20.8%, Middle East 12.0%, Latin America 3.1%, Africa 1.4%. In 2012 the only regions that saw a growth in air freight were Africa and the Middle East. All other regions saw a decline; this was - 2.9% in Europe. In 2011 there were approximately 29.7 millions tonnes air freighted.
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Public health checks mean Manston airport needs to become a DPE to import Kenyan veg
The No Night Flights campaign at Manston has discovered that many of the much disliked night flights there are bringing in peas and beans from Kenya. The EU has now identified some of these peas and beans in the pods as being a possible risk to public health, due to the level of pesticides present. It is therefore deemed necessary to test 10% of these imports, and this can only be done at the number of ports and airports that have the status of Designated Points of Entry (DPEs). Manston does not yet have this status, and will need to apply and be registered in order for these imports to continue.
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2% fall in global air freight, by tonne kilometres, in 2012 compared to 2011
Air Cargo World reports that during 2012, there has been a decline in global air freight. Until 2011 air freight and number of air passengers roughly matched each other. And air freight roughly matched world economic growth. But since last year, passenger numbers have continued to rise, while air freight has declined. World trade has grown steadily for 3 years but has lost its correlation with air freight. Volumes of goods carried by container ships has not decreased. The reason for the decline in air freight may be that emerging economies such as China, India and Latin America were now driving global growth and were transporting bulk commodities by sea rather than flying low-volume, high-value goods. The US and Europe have lost their historic dominance and are now responsible for just 9% and 7% respectively of trade growth. Over the decade 2001 to 2011 global air freight grew by an average of 3.7%. It grew by an average of 6.1% per year from 1991 to 2001. But Boeing forecasts global air freight will grow by 5.2% annually over the next 20 years. ??
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IATA hopes global air freight will increase by a 5-year compound annual growth rate of 3%
IATA has said it expects global air freight, which has not grown much this year and declined in some regions, to grow in future. It expects an increase in global air freight in 2012 of 1.4% compared to 2011, followed by an increase over the next 5 years which compounded is 3% , up to 3.7% growth in the year 2016. In 2011 there were approximately 29.7 millions tonnes air freighted. IATA expects there to be 34.5 million tonnes air freighted in 2016. However, they expect the growth of air freight in Europe over the next 5 years to be only 2.2%, which is the slowest growth of any region. IATA expects the UK to have 1.8 million tonnes of international air freight by 2016, compared to 2.3 million tonnes in 2011, according to CAA data . By 2016, the largest international freight markets will be the United States (7.7 million tonnes), Germany (4.2 mt, China (3.5 mt, Hong Kong (3.2 mt), Japan (2.9 mt, the United Arab Emirates (2.5 mt), the Republic of Korea (1.9 mt), the UK (1.8 mt), India (1.6 mt) and the Netherlands (1.6 mt).
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Approval granted for £100m Manchester Airport logistics hub covering 91 acres
TManchester Airport’s parent group MAG’s outline planning application has been approved for a 91.2 acres, £100 million world logistics hub in the southern part of Greater Manchester’s Airport City Enterprise Zone. The development will create 1.2 to 1.4 million sq ft of new logistics space. The airport hopes it will attract new international businesses and help existing airport businesses to expand, generating economic growth and - they claim" "over 1,800 new jobs" (in reality, many of those jobs are transferred from elsewhere). Some of the site will have new landscaping and natural habitats. Construction could begin by the end of the year. On 25th October, the local Wythenshawe Area Committee recommended the application for approval. Local opponents worry that it will result in serious loss of amenity, environmental damage for local people, and have serious consequences on local biodiversity and ecology.
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Global air freight tonnage fell by – 0.7% in 2011 compared to 2010. Freighters being parked.
IATA data show there was a fall of - 0.6% in tonnage (FTKs) of international air freight globally in 2011. There was a larger fall in domestic air freight, of - 1.4% giving an overall decline of - 0.7% compared to 2010. The industry is not optimistic about next year's air freight volumes, and air cargo companies are having difficulty remaining profitable. Earnings per tonne of cargo have fallen. Air freight capacity rose 5.2% in 2011, according to the IATA figures, as many companies had deliveries of new freighters that they now cannot fill. Their load factors are going down. World trade is flat, while international air FTKs (freight tonne kilometres) are dropping sharply, indicating that cargo is now being moved by other transport modes. Increasing numbers of air freighters are being parked in the Mojave desert.
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Hong Kong airport authority says 3rd runway necessary
Hong Kong airport, which has two runways, wants to build a third as it says the two will be full by 2020. It claims this is needed to keep up with the rapid growth in air traffic. There has been a 3 month consultation. The runway would cost perhaps much more than $17 billion. Hong Kong overtook Memphis in 2010 as the world's busiest air cargo hub on the back of strong import and export growth in China. Critics are calling for a thorough environmental assessment before any decision is made, but time constraints will make such a report unlikely. WWF has questioned the project.
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IATA: global air freight down – 3.1% in November compared to a year earlier
IATA data for November show global air freight tonnage, domestic and international, was down -3.1% in November, compared to a year earlier. Tonnage was down 4% compared to January 2011 though up 1.1% compared to October. November 2011 international freight was down -3.8% while domestic freight was up +25, giving the overall -3.1%. European carriers reported a 4.6% fall in demand reflecting continued uncertainty associated with the Euro-zone crisis. Shares of global air freight by region are Asia-Pacific 40.5%, Europe 22.0%, North America 23.6%, Middle East 9.8%, Latin America 3.0%, Africa 1.1%.
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Global air freight down – 4.7% in October. It has been declining since May
The confidence of purchasing managers has caused shippers to switch some transport needs to slower and cheaper sea options to the detriment of air freight which showed a 4.7% decline in October compared to the previous year. Airlines have responded to weaker demand by cutting their freighter fleet. There has been a steady and substantial 5% fall in freight load factors compared to their early 2010 peak. Air freight has been down every month since May.
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Declining air freight – various news items
At UK airports, CAA figures show air freight tonnage has fallen each month since May. It had been rising during the first part of the year. IFW reports that Lufthansa Cargo is cutting 20% or even 30% of its cargo capacity in the new year, to counter anticipated slowdown in demand. (a 25% drop = one aircraft). Lufthansa has shelved its plan for a new cargo hub at Frankfurt, as there is a night flights ban from 11pm to 5am. Moving flights elsewhere is now costing it many millions of €s.