The negative trend on the air cargo front continued in the month of May, according to an analysis from WorldACD. In the month of May, total chargeable weight again decreased YoY, this time by 5%, whilst yields (in USD) fell by 5.6%, resulting in revenue loss for the airlines of more than 10% YoY. Not a single region escaped the trend: the origins Africa and Europe suffered least, with YoY volume drops of 2.2% and 2.4% respectively, but the origins Asia Pacific and North America chalked up YoY losses of -7.0 % and -7.2 % respectively. Latin America and the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) could not buck the trend either (-4% and -3.4%).
Although the YoY performance in May was slightly better than in April, the May volume decrease was still larger than the decrease for the first four months taken together… In other words: still no recovery in sight. For the period January-May 2019, only the region Africa showed positive growth, albeit very small (+0.4%), largely driven by a 2.3% increase in business from East Africa. Among the other sub-regions, Central Asia (+12.6%), Northern Europe (+10.9%), Levant & Caucasus (+3.6%) and Australasia (+2.5%) distinguished themselves.