IATA: October air freight growth flat
The International Air Transport Association said Wednesday that growth in worldwide air freight traffic was flat in October, with a 1.1 percent year-on-year increase in freight-ton kilometers.
“Slowing growth will continue to make the operating environment difficult. There has been some respite in the slight decline of fuel prices in recent weeks. But we are still facing a fuel bill of $97 billion this year, more than double what it was only two years ago,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and chief executive officer.
October’s marginal increase brought the average growth in worldwide traffic after 10 months to 2.6 percent, well below the 13.4 percent growth recorded in 2004.
In October air traffic in North America declined 0.5 percent, when measured in freight-ton kilometers. For the year-to-date, freight traffic in North America has declined 0.4 percent.