Cargo being loaded on to a freighter aircraft
Photo by: Bloomberg
The African air freight sector bucked the global trend last year, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported. While, globally, air freight was down for the year, in Africa it showed a strong rise.
Measured in freight-(metric) ton-kilometres, global air cargo demand declined 3.3% last year, in comparison to 2018. For December, air freight volumes were 2.7% lower than in December 2018. Air cargo capacity, on the other hand, increased by 2.1% in 2019.
But Africa was a very different story. African air freight volumes in 2019 were 7.4% up on those of 2018. For the month of December, they rose by 10.3% in comparison to the same period in 2018. African air cargo capacity increased by 13.3% last year.
“Over the year, [African] air cargo volumes have been supported by strong capacity growth and investment linkages with Asia,” noted Iata. (However, Africa accounts for only 1.8% of global air freight traffic.)
(The second best performing region was Latin America, where air freight volumes in 2019 fell only 0.4% year-on-year. Capacity increased by 4.7%.)
Globally, last year was the first since 2012 in which air freight volumes declined. It also saw the weakest full-year air cargo performance since 2009 (in which year air freight shrank by 9.7%).
“Trade tensions are at the root of the worst year for air cargo since the end of the Global Financial Crisis in 2009,” said Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “While these are easing, there is little relief in that good news as we are in unknown territory with respect to the eventual impact of the coronavirus on the global economy. With all the restrictions being put in place, it will certainly be a drag on economic growth. And, for sure, 2020 will be another challenging year for the air cargo business.”