The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says January saw an increase in cargo volumes for African airlines of 17.0 per cent.

IATA, in a report on Tuesday, said it showed significant improvements compared to its -1.2 percent performance in December 2023.

It 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 international aviation body said, “in January, the Africa–Asia and Middle East–Europe trade lanes experienced exceptional YoY growth in international CTKs of 52.5% and 46.1%, respectively.”

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

In the report, IATA said that North American Airlines had the weakest performance of all regions in January, with a 9.3% increase (YoY) in cargo volumes.

It, however, said this was a performance improvement compared to December (2.0%).

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

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

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

“This was a significant improvement from the previous month’s performance (+18.3%). Carriers in the region benefited from growth in the Middle East–Asia (+29.5%) and Middle East–Europe markets (+46.1%).

“Capacity increased 17.1% compared to January 2023,” it said.

Overall, the IATA data released for January global air cargo markets indicated a strong start to 2024.

Willie Walsh, IATA’s director-general, said, “Air cargo demand was up 18.4 per cent year-on-year in January. This is a strong start to the year. 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 digitalization, efficiency and sustainability.”

According to the report, total demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs), increased by 18.4 per cent compared to January 2023 levels (19.8 per cent for international operations).

It said this significant upturn marked the highest annual growth in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) since the summer season of 2021.

Capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTKs), was up 14.6 per cent compared to January 2023 (18.2 per cent for international operations).

It said this was largely related to the growth in belly capacity.

International belly capacity rose 25.8 per cent year-on-year 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.

(NAN)