(Agence Ecofin) – The trend remained upward overall for the freight segment in the African airline industry. According to IATA, this is 4th consecutive month of double-digit year-over-year growth.
African airlines’ air cargo volumes (measured in tonne-kilometres) during the month of March 2024 grew by 14.2% year-on-year, according to the latest report from the International Air Transport Association. Traffic on the Africa-Asia route, the fastest growing segment, increased to 22.9% compared to March 2023, but it should be noted that it is down 19.8% compared to February 2024.
The best growth by region was recorded among airlines in the Middle East, whose volumes increased by 19.9% compared to March 2023, while the weakest performance was observed in North America where traffic n grew by only 0.9%. For other parts of the world, we note in particular +14.3% in Asia-Pacific, +10% in Europe and +9.2% in Latin America.
Globally, overall volumes increased by 10.3% compared to March 2023 levels (+11.4% for international operations). Growth which contributed to good performance of the industry in 1er quarter 2024, even slightly surpassing the exceptionally strong performance of 1er quarter 2021 during the Covid-19 crisis.
Several factors contributed, according to IATA, to these figures, notably cross-border trade and industrial production, the volumes of which increased by 1.2% and 1.6% respectively in February.
“ In March, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of manufacturing production rose to 51.9, indicating expansion. PMI new export orders also rose to 49.5 », indicates the report consulted by theEcofin Agency.
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