PAX AND FREIGHT GROWTH CONTINUES - IATAFREIGHT
- Latest News
- Thursday, 27 July 2006
“February, traditionally the slowest month for international traffic, brought both good news and solid growth. The recovery in freight has stretched to three months with growth of over 5 per cent resulting from strength in international trade. While passenger growth was in line with projections, North American carrier growth of 3.6 per cent is significantly below the high levels recorded in 2005 as US carriers re-allocated domestic capacity to higher-yielding international markets,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA director general and chief executive officer.
The Middle East remains the fastest growing region with 15.3 per cent passenger traffic gain largely being matched by capacity growth as new aircraft are delivered to the region. Improved economic conditions in Continental Europe and Japan led to increases of 7.3 per cent in Asia and 6.4 per cent in Europe. Load factors also improved. February’s passenger load factor of 73.3 per cent was 1.2 per cent higher than in February 2005.
Freight demand also grew at a slightly higher rate than freight capacity. Middle East (19.9 per cent) and Latin America (10.7 per cent) led the world with double-digit freight traffic growth rates. European freight volumes (2.1 per cent) are
finally seeing positive volume growth after two months of decline.
“February’s growth supports a new and cautious optimism that is returning to the industry. Cost cutting and growth will reduce 2006 losses to US$2.2 billion and lead to a profit of US$7.2 billion in 2007. We are moving in the right direction, but a 3 per cent return on capital invested is a long way from sustainable profitability,” said Bisignani.
