The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) reported that air cargo demand continued to expand in May driven by strong business and consumer demand worldwide, but capacity remains tight as passenger flights in the region are still largely grounded.
The Kuala Lumpur-based organization said air cargo demand as measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) saw a 23.1% year-on-year growth, significantly outpacing the 3.6% increase in offered freight capacity, as bellyhold space remained constrained due to limited commercial passenger operations.
Month on month, however, the expansion slowed after recording a 42% increase in cargo demand for April.
"Strong business and consumer demand globally drove demand for air cargo," AAPA said in a statement, adding that the average international freight load factor rose by 11.7 percentage points to 73.7%.
Meanwhile, international passenger markets "remained at depressed levels," which the industry group said is being held back by strict border restrictions amidst concerns about the spread of Covid-19 variants.
In total, Asia Pacific airlines carried 1.3 million international passengers in May, recording a slight improvement from the 1.1 million it carried in April.
Cargo levels back to pre-pandemic levels
"Air cargo volumes carried by Asia Pacific carriers have largely recovered to pre-pandemic volumes in response to strong demand," said Subhas Menon, AAPA Director General said. "This contrasts starkly with the depressed state of international passenger traffic, which has remained largely stagnant with no improvements seen in over a year."
Menon argued that the uneven pace of vaccinations throughout the world has delayed the recovery in international air travel — saying that in some advanced economies, travel markets are slowly recovering as populations get vaccinated and business activities resume.
"The same cannot be said for the majority of the emerging market economies in Asia, where vaccination roll-outs remain slow due to supply constraints, logistical issues and limited manpower. As a result, the travel and tourism sectors in the region have continued to suffer as strict border controls remain in place. International passenger traffic carried by Asia Pacific airlines amount to barely 5% of pre-pandemic volumes," he added.
The AAPA chief went on to say that renewed concerns over the appearance of new coronavirus variants have held back any meaningful reopening of borders.
"This will have a negative impact on airline survival, and additional government support will likely be required as the crisis is prolonged," Menon added.
