A milestone month for the air freight industry

According to data released by WorldACD, cargo volume worldwide was up 4.8% y-o-y, maintaining the trend of solid growth seen so far this year (top chart, below). But that was expected, and, while gratifying, is not particularly exciting. The real news in the WorldACD report is that June was the first month in two-and-one-half years in which there was a year-over-year increase in worldwide cargo yield (in US dollars). It wasn’t a huge increase, just 0.9%, but it represents a potential turning point for the industry after more than half a decade of uncertainty.

The overall 4.8% volume gain was driven by a 17% increase between the Asia Pacific and North America, with total volume ex-Asia up 9.6%. The weakest area was Europe, where outbound volumes declined by 1.5%, but as WorldACD points out, this was compensated  with a 5.2% growth in yield.

As shown in the lower chart, the WorldACD rolling 12-month volume index rose for the twelfth consecutive month, and now stands at 111.1 (based on a value of 100 for January – December 2009). Revenue has returned to its pre-recession levels, and yield, while not yet back to 2008 levels, has at least stopped falling.