IATA announces growth in air passenger, freight business written by Chika Goodluck-Ogazi (The Guardian)

THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that traffic results for November 2012, which showed an improvement in both passenger and air freight demand stated that air travel was 4.6 per cent higher compared to November 2011, up on the October result of 2.9 per cent.
According to IATA, airfreight volumes edged up to 1.6 per cent over the same period after declining 2.6 per cent in October, year to year.

It added that passenger capacity rose 3.2 per cent and load factor improved one percentage point to 77.3 per cent compared to the year-ago period.
The Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Tyler said, “November brought some positive signs for air transport demand particularly for air cargo. It is premature to consider this a turning point for air cargo markets in terms of bouncing back and regaining lost ground.

“But, when coupled with positive economic developments in the U.S and an improvement in business confidence in recent months, the conditions are aligning to see a return to growth in 2013. In 2013 we expect that cargo volumes will grow 1.4 per cent and passenger traffic will increase by 4.5 per cent worldwide.

“Passenger markets have held up better than cargo in the face of adverse economic conditions. But the current level of air travel is just 2 per cent higher than at the start of 2012. This is considerably weaker than the long-term average growth rate,” he added.

Compared to October, IATA noted that November passenger traffic grew 0.6 per cent. It also stated that the majority of growth came from domestic markets, particularly China.

The body said that November airfreight volumes increased 2.4 per cent on October, stressing that this reflected a shift in seasonal shopping to online retailers, which depend heavily on air cargo.
It also showed improved consumer confidence in the U.S. Seasonally-adjusted air freight volumes have now risen back to the levels of mid-2012, after declines in the third quarter.

IATA further noted that African airlines saw demand expands 5.0 per cent year-on-year but capacity growth was held in check, at 4.4 per cent. While load factor rose 0.4 percentage points to 64.7 per cent but remains the lowest of any region, compared to October, African traffic was up just 0.1 per cent.
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