Global air cargo saw April continuing the trend of volume growth but a drop in yields that has been observed earlier this year, according to WorldACD, an air cargo market data aggregator.
In April, worldwide volume increased by 3.3% year-over-year, slightly lower than the growth in the first quarter, with the origin Europe growing 4.1% and the destination North America expanding 12.6% to come out as the best performing areas.
During the first four months of 2015, yields as measured in U.S. dollars continued to drop, losing almost 11% of their early 2014 values. Excluding surcharges, however, yields increased by 1.4% year-over-year from January to April.
On a month-over-month basis, worldwide volumes in April were almost 6% lower than in March in line with regular seasonal patterns.
The notable exception was the origin Asia Pacific, where volumes remained the same month-over-month. This, said WorldACD, can be partly explained by the fact that volumes and yields across the Pacific did not yet return to normalcy, as year-over-year figures continued to be far better than the worldwide averages.
Yields fell by 4% worldwide compared to March, but held their own in the origin North America.
The first four months of the year saw a year-over-year volume growth of almost 4% worldwide. Asia-Pacific carriers and their Middle Eastern counterparts continued to outpace their competitors from other parts of the world, with cargo growth of 7% and 9%, respectively.
In the same period, European carriers lost ground in all origin areas except Asia-Pacific, where their volume grew modestly. Representatives from North America did better than average everywhere but in their home market. The origin Latin America was the only one contracting in volume, down by 3%. North American carriers showed impressive growth in pharmaceuticals (26%), while carriers from Africa and the Middle East recorded remarkable growth in perishables (13%).
On the distribution side, the performance remained stable. Of the world’s top 20 forwarders in the first four months of 2014, 19 still claimed that position in 2015. As a group, they lost some ground as they saw their combined share of worldwide revenues diminish from 45.1% to 44.4% year-over-year. Their group’s yield suffered slightly more, falling 12% than the worldwide yield of the smaller forwarders of 10%. Only six of the Top 20 forwarders realized a revenue increase. Three of these are based in Japan, the best performing of the larger countries in year-over-year revenue increase.
Photo: SSgt. Heather Cozad
