The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) reported that international passenger markets remained weak in March with unabating border restrictions, particularly in the Asia Pacific region but preliminary traffic figures released showed that cargo demand continued its upward momentum.
In a statement, AAPA said Asia Pacific airlines saw international air cargo demand, as measured in freight tonne-kilometres (FTK), grew by 16.1% year-on-year in March, which it said has been the “best performing month” since December 2019.
Offered freight capacity also rose by a comparatively slower 12.7% year-on-year, leading to a 2.2 percentage point increase in the average international freight load factor to 74.3% for the month.
“In contrast to the travel and tourism sectors, overall rising business confidence and e-commerce growth fuelled air cargo demand, with congestion at shipping ports spurring a shift to the speedier transportation of goods by air,” AAPA said.
In February, it climbed 7.6% compared to the same month last year, on the back of an acceleration in trade activity and Subhas Menon, AAPA Director-General said then that “air cargo remains the single bright spot for the Asian carriers.”
Meanwhile, passenger figures dropped further from the already sharp decline seen in 2020, with AAPA saying that in March only 1.1 million international passengers flew on the region’s carriers, equivalent to 13.2% of passenger volumes in the same month last year.
It said this has been exacerbated by the uneven progress in vaccination rollouts and rapid resurgence in COVID-19 transmissions in some countries, particularly India.
“March marks a full year since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Asian airlines have been faced with major challenges over the past twelve months and have evolved their strategies to stay afloat, by adapting to changing demand patterns and diversifying their revenue base, whilst undertaking significant cost-cutting measures. Much needed government support has also helped the industry survive,” Menon commented as he welcomed the various announcements of travel bubbles between various countries.
“With talks of more travel bubbles in the pipeline, provide hope for a gradual restart of international air travel this year,” he added.
Learning to live with the Covid-19 pandemic
The AAPA chief noted that the public and private sector should ramp up cooperation to hasten the industry's return to normal — which he said includes harmonizing protocols.
“It is apparent that we will need to learn to live with COVID-19. As such, it is imperative that governments across the world embrace harmonized risk-based measures that safely reopen air travel. This includes the digitalization of travel health certificates, as well as the implementation of contactless and seamless travel measures in accordance with ICAO and WHO guidelines, to support travel recovery,” Menon said.