10% more airfreight in Indian Ocean
A month before Air Cargo Africa, which is taking place in Johannesburg (South Africa) from 19 - 21 February, the airport that serves Réunion Island, a French department in the Indian Ocean, reported that it had noted a double digit increase in its airfreight volume in 2018. In concrete terms, the facility handled 29,190 t last year, 10% more than in 2017.
Last year’s exceptional increase was driven by exports (+16.3%), fruit in particular, after a rather weak lychee harvest in 2017. Imports rose by 7.6%.
The largest airlines serving the island’s cargo business were Air Austral, which retained its 36% market share and lifted 10,593 t (12.2%), while Air France (8,860 t, -9.6%) and Corsair (3,267 t, -4.6%) lost 7 and 2 percentage points of their market share, taking their totals down to 30 and 11%, respectively. (ah)