3pl ~ news

Report 2006
Growth in international scheduled air freight traffic was sluggish in November, but the average for the first eleven months of 2006 was somewhat better, according to a report from the International Air Transport Association.

Freight tonne kilometers for the industry were up just 3.1 percent in November. For the year-to-date, traffic was up 4.8 percent while capacity grew by 5.1 percent, led by surges in the Middle East and North America.

Available tonne kilometers in the Middle East increased 16.5 percent in the first eleven months in a neck-and-neck race with rapid volume growth, up 16.1 percent. Capacity outpaced volume in North America as well as airlines added 7.1 percent in ATK and 6.6 percent in FTK.

Traffic growth was slower in 2006 than in the previous two years, but losses were reduced and even slow growth in the coming year may yield profits in the industry.

"A positive revenue environment helped the industry reduce losses to just $0.5 billion in 2006," said Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of IATA. "We expect traffic growth to slow in 2007. Airlines must continue to keep load factors high by carefully managing capacity and by finding further efficiency gains to achieve the $2.5 billion industry profit that we are projecting for 2007."