Korean Air suffers fall in air freight traffic

Korean Air suffers fall in air freight traffic

   Korean Air saw its air cargo traffic decrease 4.7 percent to 668 million freight ton-kilometers in May, amid reports of a weaker air cargo market.

   The Korean carrier, one of the largest air freight movers in Asia, also reported that its cargo traffic fell 1.3 percent to 800,340 tons in the first five months of the year.

   The International Air Transport Association reported earlier this week that worldwide air freight traffic declined 1.6 percent in May compared to the same month in 2004, with falls of 2.8 percent in North America, 6.6 percent in Latin America and 2.7 percent in Asia-Pacific.

   Korean Air said its air freight capacity dropped 2.8 percent to 861.8 million available freight ton-kilometers in May.

   One bright spot was the Korea/China route, where Korean’s traffic jumped 44.9 percent year-on-year to 28.5 million freight ton-kilometers in May. The airline said it expanded capacity to Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai.