African airlines recorded weakest cargo demand in August, says IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says air cargo demand in Africa dropped by 4.7 percent, year-on-year, in August 2023.

In a report on Tuesday, IATA said African airlines had the weakest performance compared to Asia-Pacific airlines, European carriers, North American airlines, Middle Eastern carriers, and Latin American carriers.

“African airlines had the weakest performance in August 2023, with a 4.7% decline in cargo volumes compared to August 2022,” IATA said.

IATA said the decline is significant relative to the 2.3 percent growth recorded in July.

This, the group said, is partly due to the 1.1 percent decline recorded on the Africa-Asia routes in August (the same route grew by 11.2 percent in July).

However, the association said available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTKs) — a measurement for available total cargo capacity — increased by 3.8 percent above August 2022 levels.

The association also provided data on the cargo performance of airlines in other regions outside Africa.

According to IATA, Asia-Pacific airlines recorded an increase of 4.9 percent in air cargo volumes in August this year, while available capacity rose by 28.5 percent.

North American carriers’ air cargo volumes decreased by 1.2 percent in the review month, but available cargo capacity increased by 2.7 percent, the organisation said.

The association said air cargo volumes for European carriers also declined by 0.2 percent in August 2023, while available cargo capacity increased by 3.6 percent.

Similarly, carriers in the Middle East experienced a 1.4 percent rise in cargo volumes despite a 15.7 percent rise in cargo capacity.

Latin American airlines saw a 6.2 percent increase in cargo volumes, which IATA described as the strongest performance in August this year.

The continent’s available cargo capacity in the same month in 2023 recorded a growth of 13.7 percent.

GLOBAL AIRLINE MARKT PERFORMANCE IN AUGUST 

Meanwhile, IATA said global air cargo markets recorded a 1.5 percent (year-on-year) growth in cargo demand — the first in 19 months.

“The industry-wide air cargo demand, measured by cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs), stood at 20.7 billion in August, with seasonally-adjusted (SA) CTKs at 20.8 billion,” IATA said.

“Compared with the previous year, global CTKs grew by 1.5% year-on-year (YoY), which is the first annual growth seen by the industry since February 2022. However, industry CTKs remained 1.3% lower than their pre-pandemic level in 2019.”

The air transport group said cargo capacity was up by 12.2 percent in the review period compared to August 2022.

The growth was supported largely by storage space in the underside or belly of a passenger aircraft. 

The belly capacity rose by 30 percent as airlines ramped up operations to meet peak-northern summer travel season demand.

According to IATA global air cargo capacity registered 49.3 billion available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs) in August, adding that “industry ACTKs were 12.2% higher than the levels in August 2022 and 3.9% higher than 2019 levels”.