The year 2017 was “a real bumper year,” with positive growth recorded for almost the entire year and many records broken, according to air cargo market data provider WorldACD.
December 2017 saw year-over-year growth of 4.5% in worldwide air cargo volumes. Main contributors to the growth were the origin regions Asia Pacific, which rose 8%, and North America, which posted a 5.1% expansion.
Europe’s cargo growth was only 2.2%, while Africa contracted by 7.5%. The Middle East & South Asia (MESA) and Central & South America saw an increase in step with the worldwide average.
In destination, Europe grew the most with 6.8% traffic growth.
Worldwide yields were up by 10% year-on-year in December 2017, measured in Euro, and by a huge 23.5% in U.S. dollar terms. Compared to November, U.S. dollar yields rose by 2.5% in December 2017, notable because yields usually drop between November and December.
For the fourth quarter, year-on-year volume growth was an impressive 6.6%, said WorldACD.
Revenue for the airlines also grew in the fourth quarter, rising by over 25% as yields in U.S. dollars started to grow in double-digit percentages as from September 2017. The revenue growth was bolstered by capacity shortages in a number of markets, rate-of-exchange fluctuations, and rising oil prices.
While general cargo increased by 10.5%, specific cargo products grew by 7.4%, making for an overall volume growth of 9.6%. Yield improvement in U.S. dollar terms was also larger in general cargo (+9.4% vs. +5.9%). The categories with the highest volume growth were vulnerables & high tech, pharmaceuticals and flowers, showing a U.S. dollar yield growth of 8%, 5.4%, and 1% respectively.
The top 20 forwarders in the world remained unchanged, and their growth was in line with overall market growth. The Top 5 (DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne + Nagel, DB Schenker, Expeditors Int’l, and Panalpina) as a group outgrew their colleagues in volume (+16% vs. +14%).
Of the 50 largest origin cities, four recorded a growth of well over 20%: Hanoi (leading with 25.5%), Brussels, Colombo, and Ho Chi Minh City. Hong Kong remained the top origin, growing 16%. Of the top 10 origins, Amsterdam and Los Angeles were the ones showing slightly less growth than the worldwide average.
Among the largest destinations, Doha (leading with 42%), Shanghai, Osaka, Hanoi, Mexico City, Chennai, and Campinas all grew their incoming volumes by more than 20%.
The shares of total business for the individual airline groups remained reasonably stable except for airlines from Africa, whose business lagged behind, but whose overall growth was much higher than the growth realized by other groups.
The share of airlines based in Asia-Pacific grew a bit more than average in 2017, while airlines based in Europe, the Americas, and MESA lagged behind, although just slightly.
Photo: Don-vip
