Air freight market increase 5.2% year over year

China
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released global traffic results for February 2012 showing a 5.2% rise in cargo demand compared to the same month in the previous year. Several factors inflated February 2012 results and distorted comparisons with the year-ago period. These included weaker traffic during the Arab Spring a year ago.
When comparing to January 2012 levels, the picture becomes much more moderate, with cargo demand declining by 1.2%. Freight demand continued to be relatively stable. This trend started to develop in September 2011 and is consistent with improvements in business confidence.
Cargo growth was led by Middle East carriers with an 18.2% increase in demand which was matched exactly with an 18.2% increase in capacity. The largest volume contributor to February’s growth, however, was the Asia-Pacific region which posted a 10.2% year-over-year (Y-O-Y) gain.
European and North American carriers saw year-on-year declines in cargo traffic of 1.4% and 0.3% respectively. Latin American airlines saw the most significant decline with a 3.6% fall compared to previous-year levels. African carriers posted growth of 3.2%% over the previous year demand levels but on very small volumes.
Total freight traffic market shares by region of carriers in terms of Freight Tonne Kilometres (FTK) are Asia-Pacific 40.2%, Europe 21.7%, North America 23.1%, Middle East 11%, Latin America 2.9%, Africa 1.1%.
Source: http://www.transreporter.com/