Middle East sealed its place once again as the fastest growing region for air freight, with its carriers seeing demand expand by 7.5 per cent and capacity rise 12.6 per cent in September, a report said.

However, the increase was 5.5 percentage points down on the average for the year to date, noted the latest global air freight markets data released by the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

Major economies in the region have seen slowdowns in non-oil sectors, but growth rates remain robust enough to sustain solid demand for air cargo, the report said.

African carriers experienced growth in demand of 2.5 per cent, and capacity rose by 8.1 per cent. Nigeria and South Africa, the largest economies in the region, have underperformed. Regional trade, however, has held up, and generated increases in air freight volumes.

Globally, the air freight market showed very modest growth in September, the report said.

Measured in Freight Tonne Kilometers (FTK), air cargo volumes rose 1.0 per cent compared to the same month a year ago. This is a slight improvement on the August performance when volumes were broadly stable. Overall, however, air cargo volumes remain 1.2 per cent down from their 2014 year-end peak.

The results varied widely by region. Carriers in the Middle East reported the most significant growth followed by European (2.8 per cent) and African airlines (2.5 per cent). Asia-Pacific based airlines recorded negligible growth (0.3 per cent), and markets in North America (-3.3 per cent) and Latin America (-6.4 per cent) recorded declines.

All regions reported capacity expansions ahead of growth in demand, taking the freight load factor down to the lowest level since 2009 (43.2 per cent).

"Although slightly improved from August, the global trend is fragile, and the improvement is narrowly based. The 2.8 per cent growth reported by European carriers reflects positive trends in trade with Central and Eastern European economies as well as a general improvement in manufacturing in the Eurozone. But the largest air cargo region, Asia-Pacific, was only just in positive territory, held down by weak regional trade," said Tony Tyler, Iata’s director general and CEO.

The weakness in air cargo markets largely tracks anaemic growth in trade. The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was agreed with the intent of promoting economic growth and prosperity by liberalizing trade across participating economies.

"Trade is the path to prosperity. We have high hopes that the TPP will deliver its promised benefits to participating economies with air transport—cargo and passenger—playing its role as one of the catalysts for growth," said Tyler. – TradeArabia News Service