Asia Pacific airlines have seen freight tonne kilometres (FTK) rise to 5.8 billion in November, because of improved consumer demand in the region, and trade with the US, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).
The November figure is the highest FTK has been all year, beating the previous record of 5.7 billion in March. The FTK figures have risen and fallen throughout 2014. In January it was 4.7 billion before dropping to four billion in February and increasing to 5.7 billion in March. Like other industry data sets from other industry organisations, March saw a spike in demand before the trend fell away to one of volatility.
Asia Pacific FTKs dropped to 5.1 billion in April, before rising to 5.2 billion in both May and June. FTK increased to 5.4 billion in July before dropping to 5.2 billion for both August and September and rising to 5.6 billion in October. Compared to 2013, the year-to-date (YTD) FTK increased by 5.1 per cent to 57.5 billion.
AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman, says: “Airfreight markets continued to advance on the back of further improvement in consumer sentiment within the region and robust trade with the United States.” He also warns that challenges remain. “Whilst the demand outlook for Asian airlines remains encouraging, market competition is still intense, putting pressure on yields.” He says declining oil prices are providing some relief.
The load factor for November was 68.3 per cent, just below the yearly high in March of 68.4 per cent. The load factor in January was 61.3 per cent, dipping to 61.2 per cent before the yearly high in March.
The load factor dropped to 64.3 per cent in April, before rising to 64.9 per cent and 66.1 per cent in May and June, respectively. July saw a decline to 65.3 per cent before dropping to 63.5 per cent in August, rising slightly to 64.1 per cent in September and increasing to 66.4 per cent in October. The YTD load factor is up 0.7 percentage points to 64.8 per cent.
The YTD available FTK (AFTK) was up four per cent to 88.7 billion. November saw one of the smaller rises of AFTK, up 1.9 per cent, compared to 3.8 per cent in October. In January, it was up 5.3 per cent, followed by a rise of 1.6 per cent in February. AFTK rose by 5.9 per cent in March and 5.3 per cent in April. In May, June, July, August and September it rose by four per cent, 3.4 per cent, 3.2 per cent, 3.2 per cent and four per cent, respectively.
