It has been quite some time since there
weren’t grey clouds on the Asian air freight horizon.
But March figures for cargo handling at
major airports and by leading carriers revealed clear year-on-year gains
and an acceleration on January-February volumes.
And, it seems, most analysts expect further
improvements later in the year as the global economy picks up.
Aided by strong exports, Asia Pacific-based
airlines notched up a 6.7% increase in international freight demand as
measured in freight tonne kilometre terms last month as capacity grew
5.9%. This saw the average load factor climb 0.5 to 68.4%, the first improvement
in load factor in over a year.
AAPA Man
Heard S/H
 Andrew
Herdman, AAPA Director General, said international freight markets saw
an encouraging 3.8% growth in traffic in the first quarter during which
there was “further evidence of a pick-up in international trade,
leading to stronger demand for Asian exports”.
He called the overall demand outlook “broadly
positive”, driven by expectations of further improvements to global
economic conditions “including a long awaited recovery in international
trading activity”.
HSBC Positive S/H
AAPA’s positive outlook was reflected
elsewhere. After conversations with freight forwarders, HSBC claimed there
was now a shift in more time-sensitive goods back from sea to air as demand
improved on routes from Asia to North America.
“Our survey of our key air cargo contacts
in Hong Kong indicate that TVs/heavy tech products, which had been transported
by container ships, are now starting to move back to air due to a recent
pickup in demand,” said HSBC.
“As a result, some of our freight
forwarders that have been bearish for the last three years have become
noticeably more positive.”
Drewry Best
East & West
Meanwhile, Drewry’s East-West Air
Freight Price Index, a weighted average of air freight rates across 21
East-West trades, jumped 6.6 points in March to 102.8 points. This brought
to an end a three month rout of falling rates following last year’s
peak of November, according to Drewry's Sea & Air Shipper Insight.
“A recovery in pricing was anticipated
for March which usually heralds an uptick in seasonal demand, as high-end
summer fashion apparel and more high tech consumer goods launches boost
Asia-origin traffic,” said Drewry. “We expect air freight
pricing to recover further through April, on the tails of a new Spring
season.
“Looking further ahead, the prospect
of further freighter capacity rationalisations are also expected to support
stronger pricing.”
Key airports in the region also posted encouraging
March results. Shanghai International Airport Co handled aircraft handled
284,400 tons of cargo and mail in March, up over 9% compared to a year
earlier.
Pudong Along
But King Kong Rules
Leading the way at the Chinese gateway was
Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal (PACTL), the joint
venture between Shanghai Airport, Lufthansa Cargo and JHJ Logistics Management
set up in 1999. PACTL established a new monthly record for tonnage last
month when it handled 130,188 tons, up 17.38 percent year-on-year.
 Tonnage
in the first quarter was up 14.44 percent to 321,549 tons in the first
three months, beating the previous quarterly record set in 2011. Lutz
Grzegorz, Vice President of PACTL said volume growth was led by strong
international exports in the first quarter.
And, after posting year-on-year growth of
2.6% in the first two months of the year, Hong Kong International Airport
saw a surge in March which managers described as “remarkable”.
HKIA handled 397,000 tons in March, up 10.4%
year-on-year and mainly boosted increased by exports and transshipments,
which rose 10% and 17% year-on-year, respectively. HKIA, the world’s
busiest cargo airport, said cargo to/from Mainland China and North America
improved most significantly.
The trend at Asia’s major gateways
was a continuation of the positive global air freight trends apparent
in late 2013 and the first two months of 2014. Combined January-February
figures from IATA show that global air freight markets grew 3.6% compared
to a year earlier, compared to the 1.4% growth achieved overall in 2013.
SkyKing
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