A 3.9 per cent growth in international freight during the month of July inspired some optimism, the Airports Council International (ACI) said in its latest traffic update, even though the year-to-date figure for both international and total freight was below 1.0 per cent.

International freight in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America—the three largest international air freight markets—grew 5.3 per cent, 1.0 and 6.7 per cent respectively. Domestic air freight traffic was much weaker during the same period with major freight hubs in North America reported a 5.0 per cent decline, while in Asia-Pacific, domestic air freight grew only by 0.8 per cent.

The largest air freight hubs of the US, China and Japan reported -0.2, +4.5 and +1.8 per cent respectively. The key air freight hubs of Korea posted impressive growth of 8.0 per cent during the month of July.

In terms of absolute growth during the month of July, the top position was occupied by the Middle East air freight hub of Doha (DOH, +20 per cent, or +24,173 tonnes), while the following six positions belong to air freight hubs in Asia-Pacific, namely Hong Kong (HKG, +4.7 per cent, or +17,134 tonnes), Incheon (ICN, +7.9 per cent, or + 16,141 tonnes), Singapore (SIN, +9.4 per cent, or +13,900) and Shanghai-Pudong (PVG, +4.6 per cent, or +12,203 tonnes).

On a year-to-date basis, Doha (DOH), Guangzhou (CAN) and Singapore (SIN) were the leaders in absolute growth (+162,491, +60,182 and +51,800 tonnes respectively).