International Freight Traffic Slows

Through September, most recent complete results for the air freight industry monitored by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicate consistent growth in air freight for all world regions, with the industry up 4.9% for the month and 5.2% for the year to date.

Consistently high through the year have been Middle East carriers who were up 13.9% year over year in September and have climbed 16.8% for the year. The least amount of growth in air freight has been for European carriers, up just 2.1% as a group for the year.

Results for other regions for the year through September are Africa up 7.6%, Asia-Pacific carriers rose 5.3%, Latin America has been relatively flat though up 3.0% and North American air freight climbed 5.9%.

IATA notes that the fuel bill for the industry for 2006 is $115 billion, which account for 25% of airline operating costs. Increased 2005-2006 fuel costs to airlines will be $24 billion. Despite the jump in expenses for fuel, IATA anticipates that the industry will cut its loss of $3.2 billion in 2005 to a loss of $1.7 billion in 2006.