IATA: African airlines recorded 17% increase in cargo demand in January

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the cargo volumes for African airlines increased by 17 percent in January 2024.

IATA disclosed this in a report published on Tuesday.

According to the report, the record in January is much improved compared to December’s performance of 1.2 percent decline.

The group said carriers in the region benefitted from strong growth on the Africa-Asia trade lane.

“Capacity in January was 19.4% above January 2023 levels,” IATA said.

The report further said global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs), increased by 18.4 percent in January 2024, compared to the same period last year levels (19.8 percent for international operations).

CTK represents Cargo tonne-kilometers, which measure actual cargo traffic.

IATA said this significant upturn marked the highest annual growth in CTKs since the summer season of 2021.

Also, available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTKs) was up 14.6 percent compared to January 2023 (18.2 percent for international operations).

This, the association said, was largely related to the growth in belly capacity, adding that “international belly capacity rose 25.8 percent YoY on the strength of passenger markets”.

The report also noted that air cargo growth outpaced trade and production, owing to several factors in the operating environment.

Based on region, IATA said North American Airlines had the weakest performance of all regions in January 2024, with a 9.3 percent increase (YoY) in cargo volumes.

This, however, was an improvement in performance compared to 2.0 percent in December last year, according to IATA.

“Carriers in the region benefitted from growth on the North America-Asia trade lane (+17.1%) and North America-Europe trade lane (+3.5%),” the association said.

“Capacity increased by 3.8% compared to January 2023.”

IATA said Middle Eastern carriers had the strongest performance in January 2024, with a 25.9 percent year-on-year increase in cargo volumes.

“This was a significant improvement from the previous month’s performance of (+18.3%),” IATA added.

“Carriers in the region benefited from growth in the Middle East–Asia (+29.5%) and Middle East–Europe markets (+46.1%).”

Also, European carriers saw their air cargo volumes increase by 16.4 peecent in January compared to the same month in 2023, according to IATA.

“This was a stronger performance than in December (+8.6%). Carriers in the region benefitted from the strong growth in international CTKs in the within Europe market (+18.4%) and the Europe – Asia route (+27.5%),” the association said.

IATA said gains made from the significant expansion in the Middle East-Europe trade lane, which is 46.1 percent, also benefited carriers in the region, with capacity increasing by “12.5% in January 2024 compared to the same month in 2023”.

“Latin American carriers experienced a 13.4% increase in cargo volumes compared to January 2023, a notable increase compared to the previous month’s gain (+6.4%). Capacity in January was up 6.6% compared to the same month in 2023,” IATA added.

‘STRONG START TO THE YEAR’

Commenting on the report Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, said air cargo demand was up 18.4 percent year-on-year in January 2024.

“This is a strong start to the year,” Walsh said.

“In particular, the booming e-commerce sector is continuing to help air cargo demand to trend above growth in both trade and production since the last quarter of 2023.

“The counterweight to this good news is uncertainty over how China’s economic slowdown will unfold.

“This will be on the minds of air cargo executives meeting in Hong Kong next week for the IATA World Cargo Symposium with an agenda focused on digitalisation, efficiency and sustainability.”

Meanwhile, with 2.0 percent, Africa still has the weakest total cargo traffic market share by region of carriers in terms of CTK.

Asia-Pacific leads with 33 percent, North America 26.9 percent, Europe 21.4 percent, Middle East 13.5 percent, and Latin America 2.8 percent.