ICAO: Jun-2016 freight traffic growth the best in 12 months

ICAO reported (01-Sep-2016) world freight traffic grew 4.3% year-on-year in Jun-2016, improving by 3.4 ppts compared to May-2016. Jun-2016 growth was the highest in the last 12 months, with major freight markets posting improvements. The Middle East continued to record the fastest growth among all regions. Latin America/Caribbean remained as the weakest performing region, and was the only region posting a contraction (-9.8%), mostly due to the significant decline in international traffic. With the current sluggish growth in advanced economies and key emerging markets, the growth of freight traffic remains to be challenging in the following months. Freight capacity available expanded faster than freight traffic. As a result, the overall air cargo capacity utilisation continued to be poor with a low load factor of 43.1%. [more - original PR]