Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Wednesday said African airlines had positive performance in April posting a 0.9% increase in demand compared to April 2022.
It said this was an improvement in performance compared to the previous month (-4.3%).
Notably, the Africa to Asia trade route experienced a significant increase in cargo demand in April, up 20.0% year-on-year. Capacity was 5.3% above April 2022 levels.
IATA released data for April 2023 global air cargo markets, showing a continued, but slower, decline against the previous year’s demand performance.
IATA in its latest report said global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs), fell 6.6% compared to April 2022 (-7.0% for international operations).
It said that this decline was an improvement over the previous month’s performance (-7.6%).
Capacity (measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers, ACTK) was up 13.4% compared to April 2022. It was also up 3.2% compared to April 2019, marking the first time in three years that the capacity has surpassed pre-COVID levels.
The strong uptick is primarily driven by belly capacity as demand in the passenger business recovers. Adjusting for this, freighter capacity declined 2.3%. Freighter operations ceased in March after 2.5 years of continuous activity.
IATA noted key factors influencing demand to include: “The air cargo industry is adjusting itself to the implications of the recovery in passenger demand that brings with it an expansion of belly capacity.
”The report added that freighter operations stopped in March and freighter services were scaled back by 2.3% in April. The demand environment is challenging to read.
”Tapering inflation is definitely a positive. But the degree and speed at which that could lead to looser monetary policies that might stimulate demand is unclear. The resilience that got the air cargo industry through the COVID-19 crisis is also critical in the aftermath,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
