More confirmation of the sustained recovery in the global air cargo market came today courtesy of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) with statistics showing that both air cargo and passenger markets continued to show further improvement in April despite a week of disruptions to traffic in and out of Europe as a result of the Icelandic volcanic eruption.

Air cargo demand remained strong, maintaining the positive trend of recent months, with 32.1 per cent growth in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) in April, compared to the very weak market conditions last year. Perhaps most promising was the fact that even with a 13.2 per cent expansion in freight capacity, the average international cargo load factor for Asia Pacific carriers increased by 10.3 percentage points to reach 71.9 per cent.

A total of 15.2 million international passengers were transported by Asia Pacific-based airlines in April, 11.7 per cent more than in the same month last year while revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) grew by 8.9 per cent. With available seat capacity posting a modest rise of 1.2 per cent, the average international passenger load factor increased by 5.6 percentage points to 78.4 per cent.

Commenting on the results, AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman said: “Notwithstanding the recent impact of disruptions to European air services, Asia Pacific carriers have recorded positive growth in both passenger and freight demand in April.

“The 34 per cent growth we have seen in international air cargo traffic for the first four months of 2010 provides further confirmation of the strength of the global economic recovery currently underway, particularly here in Asia,” he added.

“Overall, traffic demand is now back to the levels seen before the recession. The outlook for the coming months remains broadly positive, supported by Asia’s buoyant economic growth, although concerns remain over regional imbalances, as well as oil and currency volatility.”