Airports Council International (ACI), which represents the world's airports, has reported that the air freight industry continued to experience a downturn in the first six months of the year.

The Montreal-based organization said the global freight industry fell by 5.1% in June, after a 2.8% decline in May. Total freight volumes dropped 3.2% for the first half of the year.

ACI said the downturn in the air freight market continues as trade tensions and global slowdown persist.

“The trade tensions that persist between several major economies – and the accompanying GDP growth slowdown – have had more impact on the air freight industry, which could possibly end 2019 in the negative,” ACI World director general Angela Gittens said in a statement.

ACI collects and analyses data from a significant sample of airports that provide regular reports on month-by-month passenger and freight statistics; this forms part of the world’s most comprehensive source for airport traffic data.

ACI said the domestic segment, mostly due to North America and Europe's robust performance, remained in the positive, increasing 1.3% for the first half.

Its report found that North America was the only major region with a positive year-to-date growth rate, having gained 0.5% for the first six months of 2019, over 4 percentage points above Europe and Asia-Pacific. North America's international market declined, however, by 4.4%.

Asia-Pacific continued its decline in June, with total freight volumes falling by 6.5%, bringing its year-to-date growth rate to -5.9%.

ACI said both of its freight markets were negative for the first half of the year at -3.6% for the domestic segment and -6.7% for the international segment.

Europe's freight volumes also contracted by 7% in June, bringing its results down by -4.4% for the first half of the year. In line with the global trend, its international market drove most of the decline, at -4.6% for the period.

Latin America-Carribean meanwhile declined by 6.3% in June, bringing its results to -1.9% for the first half of the year. The region’s domestic segment remained positive during the period, at +2%, compensating for the weakness in its international segment

(-3.5%).

Africa's air freight industry was, along with North America, one of the two regional markets with positive growth for the first half of 2019. Its year-to-date result reached +1.6%. Africa's monthly growth rate has fallen steeply, however, at +0.3% on a year-over-year basis in June.

The Middle East's air freight industry fell by -7.1% in June, bringing the region’s year-to-date growth rate to -2.7%.