Despite the precipitous declines of the past few months, Emirates SkyCargo is predicting a recovery in cargo volumes in the last quarter of 2009. “The dramatic fall was in November and December,” said Emirates SkyCargo senior vice president Ram Menen. “There will be stability in the next four to five months and some semblance of growth in the last quarter of 2009,” he told reporters Dubai recently. While global freight volumes were 22.1 per cent below their 2008 levels for February, according to the industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Middle East region experienced only a 4.8 per cent drop in February. Sixty-five per cent of the airline’s cargo capacity comes from the belly hold of passenger planes and the rest from freighters and the cargo division contributes nearly 19 per cent of the carrier’s total revenue.