WorldACD: Early Chinese New Year creates January surge

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Year-on-year cargo growth slowed to 4.9 per cent in January with an early Chinese New Year creating a flurry of activity before falling away after the big day, WorldACD Market Data says.

Chinese New Year was on 28 January this year, compared to 8 February in 2016, which WorldACD says created a flurry of activity in the week leading up to the date before falling away afterwards.

It says: “As last year’s date was February 8, the first month of 2017 “benefited” YoY from the additional activity, but also “suffered” in the last four days: we will have the best possible YoY comparison for the start of the year once the February data will be in.”

The report says origin Asia Pacific and North America registered volume growth of over seven per cent, and origin China was up over 16 per cent. Asia Pacific as a destination was up 2.7 per cent with China down 1.4 per cent.

Yields held up surprisingly well, only dropping 2.9 per cent in January compared to December, compared to eight per cent in previous years.

It also says dangerous goods appear to have been forgotten about as everyone focuses on pharmaceuticals, despite still being the larger category.

WorldACD says though it generates lower US dollar yield, dangerous goods still brings in more revenue though pharmaceuticals have narrowed the gap.

The report says pharma is larger than dangerous goods for 1/3 of airlines but it is the other way round for 2/3.

Europe remains the largest origin of dangerous goods and 1/3 of the total is carried to Asia Pacific.