Asia Pacific airlines saw "robust" airfreight growth last year despite persisting capacity constraints as most passenger flights remain grounded in the region.
The Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said Asia Pacific airlines saw air cargo demand — measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) — up 20.1% year-on-year, after posting a 15.4% annual decline in the year 2020 when the widening spread of the Covid-19 pandemic severely curbed economic growth across the world.
"International air cargo markets saw encouraging growth over the course of the year. With major manufacturing hubs located in the region, Asia Pacific airlines benefitted from buoyant export demand for consumer and intermediate goods. In addition, supply chain bottlenecks at container shipping ports boosted demand for shipments by air," AAPA said.
Capacity woes continue
Meanwhile, compared to the growth in demand, AAPA noted that offered freight capacity expanded at a markedly slower pace of 8.1% in 2021, as the drastically reduced international passenger operations adversely affected belly-hold cargo capacity, although this was partly mitigated by the deployment of cargo-only passenger flights and increased freighter operations.
As a result, it said the international freight load factor climbed 7.4 percentage points to 74.3%, the highest annual average on record.
AAPA said preliminary traffic results for the full calendar year 2021 also showed "continued decimation" in international air passenger demand for the region's airlines, as tight border restrictions implemented in response to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic dashed hopes of recovery in air travel markets.
Overall, it said the 16.7 million international passengers carried in the year 2021 represented just 4.4% of the volumes recorded in pre-pandemic 2019, whilst offered seat capacity averaged 13.8% of the levels registered in 2019.
"For a second year running international passenger travel remained severely suppressed, as a result of strict border measures imposed throughout the region and elsewhere. It is the worst crisis the region’s airlines have ever faced in terms of duration and depth," commented Subhas Menon, AAPA Director General.
He added that as vaccination programmes got under way, some governments began to ease travel restrictions in the later part of the year, supporting some improvement in the number of international passengers carried in December to 7.6% of 2019 volumes. However, the emergence of the Omicron variant has "put the brakes on recovery."
Air cargo: silver lining for APAC aviation
"The air cargo business segment has been a silver lining for the aviation industry, with strong demand helping to partially mitigate the loss in passenger revenue. In FTK terms, international air cargo demand for the year 2021 has recovered to just above pre-crisis levels," Menon added, noting that overall 2021 will be remembered "as one of the most challenging years for the region’s airlines."