The demand of airfreight growth has began to decrease in April, resulting in an important decline in load factors as they reached their lowest level for a year.

IATA figures have illustrated by their last figures that airfreight volumes increased by 3.3% year-on-year in April but compared with a steady growth of 4.3% for the first four months.

The slowdown is a result of the weakness in demand mainly caused by the Asia Pacific route, where freight tonne km (FTK) increased by 4.5% in April against the year-to-date figure of 7.3%.

“The slowdown is consistent with a reversal in earlier gains in regional trade,” IATA stated and adding that part of the recent decline in emerging Asia exports is reflecting economic weakness in Europe, which dampens demand for manufactured goods shipped by Asia Pacific carriers.

One contact at a European logistics firm confirmed this statement by saying the weaker Euro was having an effect on consumers’ buying power.

“Results have been mixed,” IATA added. “Carriers in the Middle East continue to show strong growth, with a rise of 14.1% in April year-on-year, reflecting continued expansion in capacity and network, as well as robust trade with Middle Eastern economies.

In Europe airfreight volumes carried by regional airlines fell 0.3% in April year-on-year. Recent improvements in business confidence in the Eurozone will require translation into increased demand for airfreight and consumer confidence remains subdued.

As a result thereof, there was a slowdown in growth figures as capacity increased, IATA continued
while adding the load factors decreased drastically in April to 44.7%

In March, the figure stood at 47.9% while in April last year, load factors stood at 45.4%.

The load factor levels are today the lowest over the last 12 months, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
With the exception of Africa, all other trade lanes recorded a capacity increase in April in comparison with March.

The best performance came from Asia Pacific with a load factor of 53.2% whereas Africa reached only 30.9%

IATA stated they were not confident a major improvement of the present figures was to be expected on short term basis although further growth was targeted in 2015 thanks to improvements in the global econmy.