Air cargo demand remained depressed in March, with the latest figures released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showing a 21.9 per cent decline in international freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) compared with March of last year. The AAPA average international cargo load factor fell by five percentage points to 63.2 per cent. “The air cargo business remains severely depressed as a result of the sharp slowdown in international trade. For the first quarter of the year, AAPA international air cargo traffic was down 25 per cent compared to the same period last year,” said AAPA director general, Andrew Herdsman. Meanwhile, the figures showed that AAPA’s member airlines carried a total of 11.2 million international passengers in March, 10.8 per cent fewer than in the same month last year. International passenger traffic, in RPK terms, fell by 12.9 per cent year-on-year, outpacing an overall reduction in capacity of 5.6 per cent. As a result, the average passenger load factor fell by six percentage points to 71.7 per cent. “Whilst the crisis confronting the industry remains acute, traffic levels do seem to be stabilising, even though there is, as yet, no sign of any uptick in demand that might signal the beginnings of a recovery process,” Herdsman added.