Air cargo demand growth continued on an upward trajectory in October led by Asia Pacific-based carriers.
The latest figures from analyst WorldACD show that air cargo volumes increased by 6.2% year on year in October, up from September's 5% improvement.
Yields also improved during the month, up 3% compared with September, led by American and European carriers.
"October was clearly a good month for air cargo," the analyst said. "Actually, the real growth may even be somewhat understated, as October 2016 had less 'good cargo days' than October 2015.
"The undisputed driver of the October results was Asia Pacific, in particular the origins China and Taiwan, with year-on-year volume growth of 12% and 19% respectively, accompanied by a month-on-month yield growth of 12% respectively 5%.
"Although yield increases are not uncommon towards the year's end, the 9% increase from Korea deserves mention.
"Good news, at last, for long-suffering South America, where yields improved with 10% month on month with volume growth of 3.6% year on year.
"Middle East, South Asia (MESA) and Africa held their own, volume growth in line with the worldwide average, though losing a little in month-on-month yields, whilst origins Europe and North America were rather flat."
The improvements registered by carriers is reflected in Air Cargo News' monthly focus on the Asian, American and European markets.
The analyst also looked at the figures for the last three months; among the larger intracontinental markets, Europe to Asia Pacific came out on top, with volume up by 11%.
Here the growth came from European and MESA carriers; those from Asia Pacific suffered a small decrease in volume in this market.
In one of the world's largest markets, intra-Asia Pacific, volume grew by 7% bucking the worldwide trend for this period.
"Worldwide, European carriers as a group performed best year-on-year volume growth of 6.4% over the last three months, followed by carriers from Asia Pacific (+4.8%). Two of the largest African carriers in our database must have felt quite upbeat, recording double digit growth."
