The IATA’s latest analysis covers the global and regional air cargo market based on the year on year comparative traffic and capacity during October 2024 vs Oct 2023.
The report also highlighted a low market share, with African carriers contributing only 2% to the global air cargo market.
The Air cargo analysis for October 2024 shows that African airlines saw a 1.6% year-on-year increase in air cargo demand for October 2024, the slowest growth among all regions, while capacity rose by 7.7%.
How African air cargo market performed
The air cargo outbound growth further increased by 9% three months later in September 2024 in comparison to September 2023.
The report says the North Africa and Southern Africa regions accounted for a significant part of this outbound growth since air cargo traffic from these subregions increased by +23% and 20% respectively.
The IATA data however, highlights that despite expanding cargo capacity, the region’s air cargo demand has lagged, pointing to challenges in fully utilizing the available resources
Global Performance by region
Asia-Pacific airlines saw 13.4% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in October. Capacity increased by 9.3% year-on-year.
North American carriers saw 9.5% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in October. Capacity increased by 5.8% year-on-year.
European carriers saw 7.6% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in October. Capacity increased 3.9% year-on-year.
Middle Eastern carriers saw 4.5% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in October. Capacity increased 0.8% year-on-year.
Latin American carriers saw 18.5% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in October, the strongest growth among the regions. Capacity increased 5.8% year-on-year.
Total cargo traffic market share by region of carriers in terms of CTK is: Asia-Pacific 33.3%, Europe 21.4%, North America 26.9%, Middle East 13.5%, Latin America 2.8%, and Africa 2.0%.
According to the report, the largest contributors to the industry’s annual cargo tonne-kilometers (CTK) growth were carriers from Asia Pacific, followed by North American carriers, taking the second spot for the first time since August 2023.
Asia Pacific and North American carriers contributed 46.1% and 26% respectively to the industry’s 9.8% YoY.
The reasons for the increased trade route figures have been tied to the rising e-commerce demand in the US and Europe amid ongoing capacity limits in ocean shipping.
