In November 2024, African airlines recorded a 0.7% year-on-year drop in air cargo demand, the lowest growth rate across all global regions, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
This decline signals potential challenges for the sector as it grapples with slowing demand and rising competition in the global air cargo market.
According to nairametrics.com, despite the drop in demand, capacity increased by 0.4%, indicating that African carriers continued to respond by offering more space for cargo.
The data was sourced from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) report on global air cargo markets for November 2024, released in January 2025.
READ: Aviation: Air Cargo Capacity Sees Significant 10% Growth in 2024
“African airlines saw a 0.7% year-on-year decrease in demand for air cargo in November, the slowest among regions. Capacity increased by 0.4% year-on-year,” the report read in part.
While African airlines’ performance trailed other regions, global air cargo operations saw a 9.5% year-on-year increase in November 2024, marking the 16th consecutive month of growth.
Overall global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTK), rose by 8.2%, with international operations driving a more significant increase at 9.5%. Global capacity also grew by 4.6% compared to November 2023.
IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh, praised November’s air cargo performance, noting that demand growth nearly doubled the increase in capacity.
He attributed part of this success to favourable fuel costs, which were 22% lower than the previous year, helping to support a 7.8% rise in yield.
However, Walsh cautioned that inflation, geopolitical uncertainties, and trade tensions could pose risks to future growth.
More insights
Despite Africa’s slowdown, the global picture remains positive, driven by robust demand from other regions. Asia-Pacific airlines led the growth, with a strong 13.2% year-on-year increase in demand, the highest among all regions. Capacity in the region rose by 9.4% compared to the same period last year.
North American carriers saw a more modest 6.9% year-on-year demand growth, with capacity
increasing by 2.2%.
- European carriers experienced a 5.6% rise in demand, while capacity grew by 4.3%. Middle Eastern carriers recorded a 3.6% year-on-year demand growth, although capacity decreased by 0.6%.
- Latin American carriers reported an 11.6% increase in demand, with capacity rising by 6.4%.
- The IATA report noted that several factors in the operating environment influenced these outcomes. Year-on-year, industrial production rose by 2.1% in October, while global goods trade grew for a seventh consecutive month, showing a 1.6% increase.
- The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for global manufacturing output was above the 50-mark in November, signaling growth, although the PMI for new export orders remained below the 50-mark, pointing to continued uncertainty and weakness in global trade.
In terms of inflation, US headline inflation, based on the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased by 0.1 percentage points to 2.7% in November. In the same month, the inflation rate in the EU rose by 0.2 percentage points to 2.5%.
