Icao looks back on "moderate" 2018
After the sharp pick-up in airfreight growth during the inventory restocking period in 2017, air cargo traffic growth moderated in 2018. That coincided with the softening demand drivers impacted by trade tension and declining import and export orders.
Preliminary figures released by the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) show that world scheduled freight traffic, measured in freight tonne-kilometres (FTK) grew by 4.5% in 2018, compared to 9.5% in 2017. International freight traffic grew by around 4.6%, while the scheduled international freight load factor remained at around 55%- similar to the level in 2017.
Deceleration in global economic growth forecasted by the World Bank could see moderation in traffic growth and profitability momentum in 2019. (ah)