Air freight movement at Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports continued to be impacted by weak economic growth in Europe and slowdown across Asian export markets in May, according to Airports Council International (ACI).

Asia-Pacific recorded marginal increase of 1.6 per cent while the Middle East grew 4.4 per cent year-on-year. Among major cargo airports in the region, New Delhi (DEL) led Asia-Pacific with the highest growth rate at 16 per cent whereas Doha (DOH) led the Middle East at 14.7 per cent for the month.

Hong Kong International Airport saw freight volumes decline marginally, down 0.3 per cent while Shanghai Pudong saw growth of 5.6 per cent. Dubai (combined DXB & DWC) saw growth of 4.9 per cent.

Passenger traffic on the other hand exhibited strong growth in May with Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports both reporting double digit gains y-o-y at 10.6 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively.

The month of May showed diverging results for passenger and freight traffic in both Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. While passenger traffic remained resilient, the slowdown in trade activities and air freight traffic may put downward pressures on business travel in the coming months, ACI said.